Secret Hawk
by EmperorV14
Summary: After finally being caught and sentenced to death, rogue ANBU agent Sasuke Uchiha is given an offer. To make a team of the best of the best, and to eliminate the dozens of crime syndicates that plague the world. Little does he know that accepting this offer would throw him down a rabbit hole of conspiracies, corruption, secrecy and death.
1. Episode 1

_Hashirama Memorial Courthouse, Konohagakure_

 _9:30 A.M_

 _11/14/16_

 _~Sasuke Uchiha~_

* * *

"So you actually got caught?" The raven haired man kept his head low. The guard snickered and gripped him by the back and began to guide him towards the courtroom. "I didn't actually believe it. The Hawk. Captured and to be sentenced to death. Huh." The guard shook his head. "Tell, me, was it worth it? Betraying your country to kill your brother Sasuke Uchiha?"

He didn't answer _._ The guard snarled quietly and roughly shoved Sasuke in the back. Sasuke kept his head low and ignored all the jeers and boos thrown his way as they got of the car.

The courthouse was huge. _To be expected._ Sasuke's eyes glanced up and down quickly scanning his environments. _Hmm…8 guards up front. I saw one on the right side and at least 3 on the balcony, probably more than I can't see. There aren't any escape routes that would allow me to get away without being caught somehow. At least that I can see that is._ The guard hit him again and almost shoved him into the door. _Tch. What is this fool doing?_

Smooth granite tiles covered the entirety of the courthouse lobby, and giant marble pillars held up the floor above and in between the pillars were statues of Lady Justice. Sprawled across the walls were painting and portraits of various judges. The guard chuckled as he looked at the portrait of one of the judges.

"That's your dad isn't it? Fugaku Uchiha. Honourable Judge. Now the Minister of Defense. Oh how proud he must be of you." Sasuke ignored him and stared directly at the portrait of his father, looking directly in the piercing gaze of the painting. _Hn. they certainly did a good job getting the eyes right. Though they made him look too much of a saint, if I had to say so myself._ "Heh. Just got a call, it's time for you to go in."

Sasuke spied a sign and a board posted up near the entrance that read, IN CAMERA. _Hmm…That…I didn't expect that._ His eyes narrowed. Why would Danzo Shimura make the trial private? What could the old war hawk want? _Hmm…I wonder what she has up her sleeve._

To say that Sasuke was surprised would be an understatement. There was no one in the courtroom. No one except for a pink haired girl wearing a black long sleeved shirt, and black military pants and a horizontal shoulder holster. The guard looked at her with wide eyes before backing out of the room the moment that the girl laid her eyes upon him.

"Sakura. What are you doing here?"

She ignored him and dragged him to a room in the back by the hands. _Hn…As quiet as ever. I wonder what she's been up to. It's been 3 years since our last dance so to speak. And if it were possible, she's gotten even more beautiful._ Sasuke chuckled as Sakura removed the cuffs from his hands. Sakura shot him a scathing glance.

"What's so funny?" Her voice was quiet. Nothing more than a whisper. Her death glare fully trained onto him. "Hn. Just be quiet. We'll be meeting Danzo-sama soon. So please, keep your impure thoughts to yourself." She quickly pulled the Glock-17 out of the holster on the side of her thigh and aimed it at Sasuke's back. _Hn. Too bad she isn't pressing it into my back. It would be so much easier to take control of the situation. Though considering who this is, I doubt it would actually make a difference regardless._

"How long has it been since I last saw you Sakura? 3 years or something along those lines? Back in Iron City when I finally got my revenge on my brother, or something like that. I remember you were there, and I think Satoru was there as well." Sakura ignored him. "If I remember correctly, Itachi shot you. In the heart."

"You were stupid to assume that I wouldn't wear a flak jacket. I'm not careless Sasuke. And I'm even less patient, so shut up and keep moving." Sasuke bit back another smartass comment and instead smiled.

Waiting for the two of them at old mahogany desk, was Danzo Shimura. The Minister of Justice. He gazed at him evenly before pointing at the empty chair across from her. As soon as he was seated, Sakura left, though Sasuke had no doubt that she was at least outside the room standing guard while he and the Minister of Justice had a staring contest.

It was Danzo who broke the silence. "Sasuke Uchiha. You are wanted for going rogue and going after your brother Itachi Uchiha. You are also wanted for 10 accounts of murder, though evidence suggests that they were most likely self defense, as well aiding terrorists in sieging the Mizukage Residence, kidnapping the granddaughter of the Tsuchikage and blowing up the Great Wave Bridge. Now tell me, did you commit these crimes?"

"And what if did?"

"This would be the part where I'd sentence you, but…I've got a better idea. Listen, Sasuke. You've been a thorn in the side of All Seeing Eye and LEAF for quite some time, and it would most likely be better if you were dead." Danzo leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms. "However, I'm willing to give you a second chance. Despite the best efforts of the ASE and LEAF, the amount crime has continued to rise in the Republic of Fire. Most of those who are committing crimes, are members of several giant criminal organizations that span the entire continent and even the world. Because of that, we can't fully take them down. However, a criminal like you can. So here is my proposal. I want you, to gather a team. A team consisting of the best of the best. And only the best. Hackers. Snipers. Escape artists. Demolition experts. All the like. And you will eliminate these criminal organizations. And after every mission everyone on the team will earn at least half a million ryo,"

"And then what?"

"And then you will protect the Land of Fire. Whether it be threats from within, from outside, or from wherever else. Do you agree?"

Sasuke crossed his legs, folded his arms and leaned back against the chair. _If I agree to this, then there's a chance that I might be able to take_ _ **Him**_ _down._ "What's the catch?"

"The catch is you have to coordinate with ASE and LEAF. Only a special handful of specially selected operatives know about this proposal and they will monitor your progress. Should you decide to commit an act of terrorism without any real reason as to why, we will not hesitate to terminate you. Any other questions?"

"Alright. I agree. On one condition."

Danzo sighed. "Name it."

"Sakura Haruno will a member of my team. Why? She and I have some history, I'd like to think that we work well together and are a cohesive unit, and she is one of the best assassins in the world. Do I need to remind you, that she also went rogue along with me?"

Danzo's lips pressed into a thin frown as he thought about his conditions. He sighed before stating his decision. "Fine. Sakura Haruno will join your team."

Sasuke's lips curled into a small smirk. _The Hawk shall soar once more. But first, to assemble a team._

* * *

 _Uchiha Residence, Konohagakure_

 _7:35 P.M._

 _11/14/16_

 _~Satoru Uchiha~_

* * *

Satoru hadn't expected Sasuke to be home at all that night. He was supposed to have been sentenced to death, but instead, according to him, he was to form in essence a Suicide Squad. And Satoru was to be part of it. _As if I would have said no anyways. I've been helping you since the moment you decided to go rogue. As if anything would change._

There were 7 files were piled up on the coffee table, courtesy of his older brother. With a sigh, Satoru set down the coffee cups aside their respective owner, before sitting down across from Sasuke. The Hawk no longer looked like a prison inmate, and was wearing a formfitting long sleeved black shirt and a pair of military pants. Bored, Satoru pulled out his phone.

"How long are you going to be looking at those files? We should really start to build this team up, because according to one of the ASE's moles in the Rising Sun gang, something big is about to happen. So we need to hurry. Hackers are especially important in modern warfare, with how technologically advanced and technologically dependent society has become." Satoru turned his head to the kitchen doorway. Strolling out of the doorway with a bagel in hand was Sakura. She opted to go with a white shirt and black leggings.

"Now, now, no need to be impatient. We have to get Satoru up to speed on who the members are that we've chosen. Here catch." Sasuke said, tossing one of the files onto Satoru's lap, with the picture of a man with long blonde hair in a ponytail with bangs covering the left side of his face. "The first member we'll be going after is Deidara Kurosawa. 19 years old, used to be an art student at Earth University of the Arts in Iwagakure, now he's living on the streets of Konoha making a living by making and selling explosives after the University lost all funding."

Sakura scoffed. "Why are we going after him first? Why the hackers? They'll be the most useful assets here."

"You have a point, but while you two were setting up the Nest, I intercepted a transmission from the bomb squad." He stood up and turned on the holographic table. Satoru stood up and made his way beside Sasuke. "According to eye witnesses and security, there is a bomb in the women's bathroom on fourth floor of the Forest Mall. First, they heard some ticking, and then soon that turned into an alarm."

Satoru wrinkled his brow. "So? Why not just leave it to the bomb squad?"

"Because I don't think they can defuse this kind of bomb." Sasuke brought up the security feed from the mall and pointed towards the bomb. "That, according to my knowledge is a dirty bomb. And even if the bomb squad could somehow find a way to defuse it, they're being stalled by a squadron of the Rising Sun members."

Her arms folded, a concentrated look on her face, Sakura made her way over and stood across from the table. "That would mean that this is their doing is it not?" _That would make the most sense. Why else would they try to keep the bomb squad at bay?_ Sasuke nodded. "I see. And you think that this Deidara Kurosawa will be able to defuse a dirty bomb? As in a bomb that uses both radioactive elements and conventional explosives? Are you sure he can defuse it? Because if he can't, then we're going to be in a whole lot of trouble, just mere hours after we've been released."

"That's the gist of it."

"I got a plan then." Satoru cut in. "If that's the case, then we're going to have to get started quickly, because I don't think that there's going to be much time left. If you don't mind brother?" Sasuke shook his head. "Okay, here's the plan, brother, you'll go and pick up Deidara-san, while Sakura-chan keeps both groups, the Rising Sun and the police, at bay. Afterwards, Sasuke you'll take Deidara to the bomb and have him defuse it. Afterwards, since it could be reactivated, Sakura-chan will meet you at the nearest subway station, unless there is a hitch in the plan, which, then she will come to you instead. Sound alright?"

"Sounds good." Sakura said, finger raised. "But how do we get Deidara to come to us? According to file he rarely if ever has contact with anyone outside of that shithole called Little Iwa, and if he does it's usually a client."

Satoru cracked his knuckles and brought up the bomber's site in the Dark Web. "That's right, which is why we will be posing as a client who needs his help. I've already sent him a request for a meeting with you Sasuke. He'll be expecting a black mustang with fan decals and the LTR 678 on the license plate. That car should be in the garage. I've modified it so that the doors slide to the side like van doors so that it's easier for someone in the backseat to get up to the passenger of driver's seat and vice versa, but if you want you could switch it back to how it's supposed to be. Oh and there should be an MP7 in the glove compartment."

Sasuke nodded and patted him on the shoulder before slipping on a navy blue jacket with a holster on the inside. "What are the other toys for today Sato?"

"Just one second." Satoru knelt down and pulled several compartments forward revealing a cache of handguns and other devices. He pulled out a silenced Glock Pistol and a silenced M9. "Here." Satoru slid the Glock over to Sasuke and tossed the M9 over to the pink haired assassin. "Sakura-chan! There should be an M110 sniper rifle in the back along with the key to your Kawasaki Ninja. It should be able to get to 160 Km/h faster now and should have a shorter breaking distance. By the way, where in the hell did you get that thing? It looks awesome! Also could you give the black briefcase with a 0515 serial number on it to Sasuke? Thanks. Anyways, you won't need any special gear for this mission. Deidara Kurosawa should already have the equipment necessary to defuse the bomb. And here, take this." Satoru said, sliding a small device toward Sasuke. "I redesigned the security of the communication server so it shouldn't be too easy to tap into, but a Wizard-Class hacker would be able to tap into it no problem. So we're gonna need those hackers soon."

Sasuke nodded, and slipped a mag into the Glock before sliding it back and holstering it. "Don't worry about it. This won't take longer than 2 hours if everything goes according to your plan. However, should something happen, we're better off improvising. That is after all what we're best at. Now let's go stop a bomb."

* * *

 _Little Iwa, Konoha_

 _7:40 P.M_

 _11/14/16_

 _~Deidara Kurosawa~_

* * *

Running through the poverty ridden, gang controlled streets of Little Iwa, Konoha was a death sentence for those who didn't know their way like the back of their hand. An endless number of alleyways and side passages that often went nowhere and numerous potholes and crevices littered the place. It was a rather good thing that Deidara didn't need to know his way inside out. When you could make a bomb on the fly with whatever was nearby, it made people stay the fuck away.

Ducking into an alley, Deidara hid against the shadow of the alley as his pursuers ran by him. _Rising Sun members. What the fuck did they want me for? Last I checked, I made sure to avoid those fuckers like the goddamn plague. So why the fuck are they chasing me, yeah?_ Shaking himself out of his thoughts, Deidara made his way onto the busy avenue.

Little Iwa, truly was little. It occupied less than half a square kilometer or two hectares and was only area that had Iwagakure influence. And considering the animosity between the two after 3 wars, it was surprising that Little Iwa hadn't already been torn down brick by brick, and burned to the ground, with all of its inhabitants beaten to death, and raped. Or at least that's how the inhabitants would make it seem.

Deidara's experience taught him that the people of Konoha don't really care and that they would like as little to do with anything Iwagakure associated if possible. Normally Deidara would follow that rule, but no one could really tell where he was from. Not that his clients really cared anyways. All they cared about were the explosives. And boy were there a lot of them.

 _Hmm…The client should be here right about…now._ And just on time, a black mustang with fan decals. Seated in the driver's seat was a man dressed in a navy blue utility jacket over a black crew neck shirt and paired with black pants. He rolled down the windows as Deidara peeked in.

"Are you Deidara?"

"Of course I am. Are you Xx_EmoHawk_xX? By the way, that's a terrible name, yeah, you come up with that cancer inducing name?" Deidara's employer sighed and nodded, unlocking the door. "Seriously, who came up with that name, yeah?"

"Call me Sasuke. And that was the work of my brother. He was the one who contacted you. Anyways, we should get going."

Deidara raised his hand. "Hold up, I gotta see the money first and then we'll go, yeah." Sasuke scoffed and pulled up a silver briefcase. A couple seconds later, and a couple of clicks later, Deidara was greeted to at least 50 000 ryo. "Nice. All right let's go-'"

BANG!

Everyone in the area except for Sasuke ducked their heads as a gun went off. Without warning, Sasuke pulled Deidara into the car as another bullet was fired. This time, missing Deidara's head by centimeters. "What the fuck was that!?" Sasuke held Deidara down, and put the pedal to the metal as more gunshots rang out. Lifting his head momentarily above his seat Deidara could see that the Rising Sun members that he thought he had lost, were right back on his trail. _Fuuuuuuccccckkkk!_

Sasuke rolled down his window. "What are you doing man-'" The sound of a silenced pistol firing was the answer to Deidara's question. Aiming backwards with a pistol, while looking at one of the side view mirrors was what he was doing. "I don't think that's safe, yeah."

"Do you have a better idea Deidara-san?" He shook his head. "Well, I do. How good are you at driving?"

"Uh…pretty good I'd like to say without tooting my own horn you know? Why?" Deidara blinked once, then twice and then a third time. "Oh no. No, no, no, no. You drive. You seem like you know what you're doing, yeah. I'll just stay here in the back cowering in fear of getting shot the fuck up yeah."

"You're not going to get shot. This car is bulletproof so you don't to worry."

"Okay, well how the hell are we going to change seats without getting our heads blown up, yeah!?"

"Wait until we hit a long enough straightaway then we'll switch." At least 3 minutes passed until Sasuke turned the mustang onto a bridge, all the while taking fire from the Rising Sun. "Alright. Time to switch." He then calmly and slowly slid the door to the side like it was a van door. "Come on. We don't have time to waste. Oh and put this in your ear. It'll help you." He said dropping an earpiece into Deidara's lap.

"An earpiece?" _This guy is way too good to be one of my normal employers. Either he's just crazy prepared, he's batman, or he's something else._ Sasuke hung on the side of the mustang with one hand while firing at the gang members with the other, not even flinching when several bullets whizzed by his head. "Okay then. Just don't get shot yeah?"

"Hn. These guys could only dream of hitting me, so don't worry too much." Sasuke said as he entered the backseat, before leaning over to the front and pulling an SMG from the glove compartment. "Now focus on driving."

"Deidara-san?" The voice of a teenager buzzed in his ear and Deidara looked all around looking for the source. _Wait, that's coming from the earpiece. "_ Okay, hello! I'm Satoru Uchiha, the one who contacted you. I'm sorry, but you won't actually be getting any money for this job. But don't worry, we have a proposal that we, and by we, I mean my brother, would think that you'd like." Deidara groaned in frustration, but nevertheless stayed quiet. _There must be a good reason for this._

"Okay, but could you speak louder, I can't really hear you over the sound of heavy ass traffic, sirens and oh, I don't know, gunfire!?"

Satoru chuckled. "Okay, here's my, or rather my brother's proposal." And sure enough his voice did seem louder. "He's on a mission from the Minister of Justice, to create essentially a Suicide Squad, of the best of the best to help take out all the big crime organizations that are plaguing the world. All the while being protected from conventional law, meaning we can do whatever the fuck we want to take down crime…As long as, there are no civilians harmed and the property damage isn't too extensive."

"That sounds nice and all, but what do I get out of it? Fame? Reputation? Money? Preferably money, because I really need the dough. Not greedy at all, just need it to fund my art, yeah."

"Well, according to Sasuke we'll get paid at least half a million ryo for every organization we take down. Is that good enough for you?" _Half a million? I could buy and fix all of Little Iwa with all that money! And maybe even get the old Art Academy back in Iwa up and running again. "_ I'll take your silence as a yes. Just so you know, you're going to be working mostly with criminals. In fact, you're with one of Konoha's most well-known traitors right now."

"Sorry, not ringing any bells. I don't usually pay attention to the news. Heck the only reason I have a TV is so I can watch A Competition for Power. Best. Show. Ever. But anyways, don't worry about it. I don't really about that shit, yeah."

"That's good. Now, I need to ask you something. How good are you at defusing bombs?"

"Not trying to sound arrogant or anything, but I'd like to think that I'm the best at it. Nukes, electromagnetic, conventional, unconventional, you name it, I can defuse it. Though I would prefer not to have to defuse or disarm any nuclear explosives. It's just a pain in the ass and if I mess up, it's not good for me, or anyone, yeah."

"What about dirty bombs?"

"Dirty bombs? Yeah, I could defuse them. Given time, though if I fail, the effects are going to be just like a nuke's. Except not as severe. Still, that would be a bad thing yeah."

"Okay. Got it. Do you need any special equipment? Like wire cutters maybe? A little drone? A gun to shoot at the bomb or something? Anything?"

"A drone would be nice, saves me the work of actually having to disarm the bomb myself. But not really needed. I can do it by myself."

"That's a nice conversation you're having over there." Sasuke called out to both of them. "But we're in a little trouble here. I've managed to eliminate all the Rising Sun goons, but now the police are on our tails. That isn't the only problem. Your MP7 only had 2 mags Satoru, and now, I think I'm starting to run low on ammo. Has Sakura completed her objective? We might need her help soon."

Deidara got off the bridge. "Um…Where am I supposed to go? Just keep going straight?"

"Forest Mall. Should be on the GPS. Now, Sasuke to answer your question the fight between the bomb squad and the Rising Sun ended early. No one in the bomb squad survived. She's heading into a new position overlooking the Forest Mall. If you can, try and lure the cops into a place where she could easily take them out. Also, if you go into the last stall in the fitting rooms of the Urban Globe, you should be able to find a small hidden door with ammo in it. Got that? Satoru out."

"Yo Sasuke." His raven haired companion's gaze turned towards him momentarily. "What did Satoru mean by that? Lure them into some place where she could easily take them out?"

Sasuke took a second to fire a shot at a cop before pointing out to an alley. "Um…The Forest Mall is right around the corner, are you sure?" Sasuke nodded. "Alright, then. Here's to hoping that we don't get killed. Or captured. Or blown to bits." Deidara then took a sharp right turn into a parking lot. Blocking the other entrance and the exit, was another police cruiser. "Crap baskets."

"Stay calm. Everything will be fine. There's no need to worry." _I'm not sure if I can believe you at all Sasuke, but I will._ "Now stop the car and get out slowly, with your hands up."

"Alright, alright. You seem like you know what you're doing." From what Deidara could tell, there were at least 10 police officers surrounding them. _Fuck. This is going to take a miracle to get us out of._

Deidara flinched as the cops began to yell and scream at them to get on their knees and for Sasuke to put down his gun. The cops roughly pulled Deidara up to his feet as an officer began to question Sasuke.

"Well, well, well. Look who we have here. Aren't you supposed to be dead Sasuke Uchiha? Killed by lethal injection? Well, whatever the case, I bring you in, I'm gonna get a promotion. I win, and you lose."

A female cop purred and ran her hand down Sasuke's torso. "Ooh, you think I could have a little fun with this before we arrest him? I've always wanted to fuck an Uchiha."

Another cop chimed in. "Heck all of us are going to get promotions. Now what do you have to say for yourself Uchiha?"

Sasuke's face remained expressionless, though Deidara was sure that the corners of his lips curled up into a slight smile. "She's in range."

The officers burst out laughing. "The fuck is that supposed to mean. Your girlfriend? Listen buddy, _no one_ and I mean _**no one**_ is coming to save you, so why don't you shut the fuck up and put your hands behind your back. This won't take too long-'"

Before he could finish several gunshots rang through the air and not long after, all ten police officers dropped dead, blood dripping from the bullet holes in their heads. All the while, Sasuke stood unmoving, looking off in the distance. Deidara let out a sigh of relief before raising his head and looking in the same direction. _What the hell is he looking at?_

"On your feet Deidara, we don't have time to waste. The Forest mall is right around the corner." Sasuke told him, and helped lift him to his feet. He then opened the car door and pulled out a black briefcase from the glove compartment. "Let's go."

Deidara nodded. _Jeez, what did I get myself into?_

* * *

 _Forest Mall, Konoha_

 _8:00 P.M_

 _11/14/16_

 _~Sasuke Uchiha~_

* * *

The Forest Mall was one of the oldest buildings in the commercial district. It was already old when his grandfather Madara was in his prime, and now, it was even older. Though the modern look, and colours would say otherwise. But the Forest Mall had gone through an evolution of sorts and now, it didn't seem at all out of place like it used to. Giant screens and giant holographic maps, along with bright skylights made it look very modern. Most of Sasuke's experience there was full of oceans of people and giant lines that stretched from outside stores. Now it was empty.

"Hn. Not even a bomb was enough to make people lose their shopping bags. Though it is enough to make them drop their food, their backpacks, uh…what is this thing? A man purse? Seriously? What a guy." Deidara said to himself, his head darting all around. "Hey Sasuke, you go here often?"

"No, I was more of a Mall of Sarutobi guy myself. Though I did come here on occasion. Like the time that there was a terrorist attack and the Forest Mall was held hostage. Now, the bomb should be in on the fourth floor. Right Satoru?"

He could feel his brother instinctively nod. "Yeah. Good to see you guys make it out alive. Now, the bomb is in the female washroom near the food court. What stall it's in, I'm not sure, but I can provide some additional information. Those Rising Sun guys who were in a firefight with the bomb squad, yeah, they're on their way to Forest Mall. And they're hell of a lot better armed than the ones who were pursuing you two. And according to the security cameras there are a couple of the Rising Sun thugs already in the Mall. So watch out for that. They should be in lurking around in the Sports World at the other end of the mall as well as the GameStart, so again, watch out for that."

"Copy that. Is Sakura on her way here?"

"She is on her way, though the traffic is a nightmare, and that little stunt you pulled with that "epic" car chase got the police pulling traffic cop duties, so she's gonna be a little late."

"Sasuke!" Deidara called out, crouching underneath a low wall. "Rising Sun thugs over there." Mulling around in the Urban Globe store, Sasuke counted at least 4 men. Two of which were armed with pistols, one with a shotgun and the other a revolver. "You think you can take them out quietly? If attract attention it's going to be a lot harder to defuse the bomb."

"Yeah, I know. Satoru, think you could cut off the power for a moment?" Sasuke pulled out a silencer and screwed it onto his Glock. "I'll contact you when all of the Rising Sun members within the store are taken care of."

"Roger that."

Soon afterwards, the entire building went dark and Sasuke was sure that he heard Deidara squeal like a girl. "I'm fine, I'll just hide here in the shadows like batman."

Slinking around in the dark wasn't Sasuke's specialty, but against untrained fools like the Rising Sun, it was like he was a cougar waiting to pounce on its prey. It wasn't really hard to sneak up behind the one with the shotgun and put him to sleep before putting a bullet in his head. _What a fool, isolating himself like that in the dark. He was probably trying to find a breaker box and turn on the light. Smart, but stupid. You don't just go off by yourself in the dark._ The two men with handguns stood near the back, using a lighter to light up the surroundings. _Tch. better leave them for last._

Out near the changing rooms was the one with revolver. He was darting around wildly, aiming his revolver at anything that made a sound, whether or not it was himself stepping on something or running into something. As soon as he turn towards Sasuke and aimed his gun in the shadows, Sasuke pounced, disarming and shooting him in the heart point blank before dragging his body into a clothing rack.

"Sasuke, There's another group of thugs in the food court, and another one in Kushina's Secret. I think you know what they're doing in there." Satoru said.

The remaining two had split up like the idiots they were, with the one with the lighter making his way towards the cash register. The other one was snooping around in the fitting rooms when Sasuke snuck up behind him and promptly snapped his neck and then dragged him into one of the stalls. Conveniently, it was the same one where Satoru hid the box of ammunition. Sasuke then moved as fast he could without making any noise and shot the last one in the head, not even bothering to hide the body.

"Alright, Urban Globe is cleared out, moving to Sports World. Satoru, could you get me an exact number of targets in there?"

"Wait a second…Alright, there are 6 of them. 2 are armed with handguns, one with an assault rifle, two of them with shotguns and the last one has an SMG, I'm pretty sure it's an MP5. The dudes with the handguns and assault rifle are near the hockey equipment, don't know why though, and the shotgun dudes are near the shoe section and the redshirt with the MP5 is standing guard near the front."

"Aren't redshirts supposed to be the good versions of mooks and evil minions? According to TV tropes anyways." Deidara's whisper came over the radio. "Regardless I've moved up and am hiding behind the couch just in front of Sports World."

Taking out the SMG guy wasn't was hard at all. Just a single silenced bullet to the head was enough to do it. To say that Deidara was freaked out when Sasuke appeared beside him dragging a body would be an understatement. Though to his credit, Deidara managed to stay quiet.

Sasuke would never be able to understand why these guys ever thought that splitting up and isolating themselves was a good idea. He quickly sneaked up behind the one with the assault rifle and snapped his neck. _Hmm, an M4…which model is it...Ah. M4A1. How the hell did they get these? Oh well, I'll figure it out later._ The two with the handguns made it even easier for him when they lined up their heads for an easy double kill.

"Those guys just basically killed themselves." Came Satoru's voice as he tried to hold back his laughter.

"Quiet." Sasuke whispered sneaking up on the two shotgun guys. He then reached up and twisted the neck of the one closest to him before shooting the last one in the head. "Alright moving onto the GameStart."

By the time he finished eliminating all the Rising Sun goons one by one, Sasuke was pretty sure that they never even knew that he was there. He stood against a table in the food court as he unjammed his pistol. "Uh…It's in the women's washroom right?" Deidara asked nervously. Sasuke raised an eyebrow.

"No one's here, and no is going to care. Go and stop wasting time." He then holstered the gun. "Satoru, when's the ETA on the Rising Sun reinforcements? And what about Sakura? She should be here by now."

Satoru sighed loudly. "The Rising Sun members should get there in…10 minutes. And somehow, if it was possible, the traffic got worse. Right now I'm trying to find the fastest route to get to the Forest Mall without having to go through all this traffic. Sakura-chan should get there in approximately 12 minutes.

"I see." He watched as Deidara entered the washrooms. "Are you going to need any help Deidara?"

"Hmm? Oh no, it won't be necessary."

Sasuke nodded. "Alright then. Satoru, now that we have some time, tell me, what do you think of the other candidates? Starting with the hackers."

"Ah, yes. The Fox. The best hacker in the country. Whoever the Fox is, he or she has hacked into dozens of banks and yet have only stolen a grand total of 3 million ryo over the 4 years that they've been around. Now there have been reports that the Fox is actually two people, instead of one, and according to the file you have, you believe this to be true. Why is that? Specifically why do you think that Kurama and Naruto Uzumaki are the Fox? If I remember correctly, aren't they related to Kushina Uzumaki in some way? Why would they steal 3 million dollars when they have 10 million ryo of inheritance money?"

"Because that money was stolen and with their parents dead, the only source of income for them comes from their godfather Jiraiya Gamasaki. And according to reports, the Fox has been known to do multiple hacking jobs all at once. At least 4 at the same time. Something that should be nearly impossible for a single person to do. Also, if you were to look at their transactions, you would be able to see that they have these huge spending sprees, around a week or two after a big internet heist if you will. Presumably they wait that long to shake off any suspicion that they stole money, but if they really wanted to throw off any notion that they're the Fox they would wait until the next time that Jiraiya came by. That would give them a valid excuse because the man is notorious for making it rain in strip clubs and he earns a lot of money from book royalties. Also, they're a bunch of NEETs, Hikkomori's, and shut-ins, whichever you want to call them. Though Prime Minister Sarutobi's grandson's Facebook profile says something different."

"But this can't be. Kurama Uzumaki is 17 and her brother is my age. 16. How the hell are they this good if they are indeed the Fox?"

"You never know with Wizard Class hackers. There's a reason why they're called that. It almost seems that what they're doing is magic, that's how good they are."

"Okay. If Kurama and Naruto Uzumaki are these Wizard Class hackers that you say they are, how the hell are we going to get them on our side? If I remember correctly, their mother was an ANBU operative turned supermodel, and their dad was the Yellow Flash, who was the Prime Minister before he got assassinated."

"Don't worry. I've already got something in mind. Now, onto the next one. Our sniper candidate. Ana Shimada. The granddaughter of the patriarch of the wealthiest family in the Land of Fire."

"If I remember correctly Shinji Shimada holds the record for most confirmed sniper kills in history. Killed over 600 soldiers during the Second Great War. He is the reason why the Forest of Death is called the Forest of Death. So if you're going after his granddaughter…"

"Yes. Her gun range statistics very closely mirror those of her grandfather. Quite literally no misses. And while that doesn't really tell much of anything, her time in the Konoha Special Forces show that she is just as, if not more accurate than her grandfather. However, she was dishonourably discharged after being caught for deserting her squad during the Windy Nation war so recruiting her should be easier than the others."

"Yeah, I'm looking at her file now, and boy does she have a lot of problems. Specifically with authority. I'm seeing a lot of cases of insubordination, failure to obey order or regulation, and disrespect to her superiors. Often times claiming that they were holding her back and that she could take out every single member of her unit without a sweat. She could be a problem."

"No she won't. Something tells me that if we can beat her, then that'll get her to listen." Sasuke responded. He would know. He was like her at point. "Thoughts on the next ones?"

"Sakuya Suzuki better known by her nickname Tenten and Takuma "Rock" Lee. Former friends of yours? Sakuya, the Republic of Fire's best marksman, and is in general a weapons expert. Takuma Lee, if remember correctly, you said was one of the best hand to hand combatants in the world. Both of them were members of your unit in ANBU right? What makes you think that you could recruit them?"

"I don't know if you remember but they were the ones who helped me get out of the country in the first place when I went rogue to go after Itachi. If I asked them to join us, they would."

"Alright then. And what about this…Shino Aburame?"

"He was a member of the ASE's recon and espionage division, so I didn't get to work with him that often, but when I did, he was by far the best infiltrator, tracking, escape artist and driver that I have ever laid my eyes upon. If I remember correctly he resigned from the ASE and works as a contractor. Out of everyone here, he should be the easiest to track down and recruit. So we're saving him for last." The sound of beeping reached Sasuke's ears as Deidara walked out of the washroom, a small container in hand, glistening with sweat. "And we are done here. Satoru, how many Rising Sun members are we facing here?"

"There are 20, most of them wielding assault rifles. Their leader is Gato Shibuya, he has an 870 shotgun with him. I think it's time you consider using the briefcase."

"I'll consider it. ETA on Sakura's arrival?"

"She should be there in 2 minutes. You think you can hold them off that long?"

"Hn. Who do you think I am? 20 guys are nothing compared to Itachi." He and Deidara stood in front of the front door where slowly the thugs entered the lobby before all pointing their rifles at him. Waddling towards to front, his rolls of fat shaking, was Gato. He let a laugh.

"Sasuke Uchiha. I should've known. Who else but the infamous Hawk? Ha! You should surrender now. You're good, I'll give you that Uchiha, but I don't even you could survive this encounter. 19 men all with assault rifles, and me. With my shotgun. You think you can survive this, then you're wrong."

Remaining silent, Sasuke flipped a switch on the handle of the briefcase. Shortly afterwards a small, indiscernible trigger popped out. Sasuke tilted his head, eyebrows raised. "Are you sure about that?"

"Sasuke, this is Sakura. I am on the premises of the Forest Mall." Sasuke heard her chamber a round in her M9.

"Roger that." Gato snarled at him and loaded a shell into his shotgun. All the other thugs let out hoots and whoops as they turned off the safeties on their M4's. "Now, Gato, do you have any last words?"

"Are those yours? Well too bad. Cause you're gonna fucking die!"

Before any of them could even move, Sakura burst through the skylight on her bike and onto the second floor, all the while firing her gun. At least 12 men fell to dead before they could even move. The remaining 6 were killed by Sasuke and the gun inside the briefcase. All the while Deidara crouched in the corner looking at the bomb.

"Deidara. Give Sakura the bomb. We'll be heading back to our base." The bomber blinked several times before making his way over to Sakura before standing back as she rocketed out of the mall.

"Wait, we have of operations? Fucking cool! How are gonna get there by the way? The mustang?" Sasuke nodded. "Can I drive?"

"You don't know the way there."

"You have a good point. Lead the way boss"

* * *

 _Uzumaki Residence, Konoha_

 _3:47 P.M._

 _11/17/16_

 _~Naruto Uzumaki~_

* * *

"Hey, Kurama, could you pass the instant ramen? I've starving here." His redheaded sibling reached over to the desk, swivelled around on her chair and set the bowl down next to Naruto. "Thanks. Now, gotta fucking carry this shitty ass team, like-what the fuck dude! Stop feeding! Moron. Learn to play god damn it!"

Kurama chuckled and moved several strands of her crimson tresses behind her ear. "And that's why I don't play MOBA's. Wha-wha-What the fuck are you doing!? The bomb is on A! What the hell-Fuck. Well, I guess even being the best doesn't stop you from having shitty ass teammates…Why? Why would you do that? We were about to fucking win! You know what? That's it. That's it. Fuck this. Fuck that. And fuck you too." She seethed rage quitting. Kurama then took a deep breath. "Hey, Naruto, we got any job offers?"

"Hmm? Yeah, one from someone called Xx_EmoHawk_xX. Yeah, I know. Shitty outdated memetic name." Naruto had seen a ton of bad names online, but that one, was certainly up there in terms of sheer stupidity. "Here, I'm almost done with this match, so I'll go and help."

"No need. The job is pretty easy. Hack into the ANBU database and look for data on Sasuke Uchiha. Don't know why though. He's supposed to be dead or something. Killed by lethal injection or something."

Naruto grinned. "Bet you I can hack into the ANBU database faster than you can." His sister snorted and bopped him on the head.

"Are you sure you wanna take this bet? I am after all the better hacker out of both of us. But then again, you have been getting better, and you may have been practicing. How you practice hacking, I don't fucking know, but your hacking has certainly gotten better. Still not as good me though."

"Don't start getting cocky sis. We're Wizard Class for a reason. It's magic. Anything could happen. Now, searching for Sasuke Uchiha right?" Kurama nodded. Soon enough the only sound in the room was the sound of fingers typing at a combined 500 words per minute. "Hmm…managed to find a back door. Hah. Looks like I win!"

"Are you sure about that little brother? Regardless we both arrived at the same place but…it's empty. All save for this link…Hmm…This could either be bad or good. Probably really fucking bad, but…oh well. We're getting paid a fuck ton of money for this. Besides we got the most secure firewalls in the Land of Fire and the best antivirus software."

"Unless this is the Black Dragon. He's the only God Level hacker in the world for a reason. But yeah, go for it. This kind of money? We won't even need to hack for at least another 2 years or so."

Kurama nodded and clicked onto the link. And then all of their monitors went black. "FUCK!" His sister roared and immediately went into overdrive mode and began to type at over 275 words per minute. "Damnit. Wait…The hell is this…"

The big central monitor whirred to life. And 5 words popped up.

 _ **WE KNOW WHO YOU ARE.**_

"Shit." Naruto said, eyes widening as he got up close to the monitor. "How do you think they figured it out? We've been so fucking careful! How the hell did they figure it out!? Wait a minute, who's they?"

 _ **WE ONLY WANT TO TALK.**_

"Well that's nice I guess. What do think they want?" Kurama asked as she typed away, trying to find a way to get their systems back online. "Either our money, our connections, both, or our services."

 _ **IF YOU WANT YOUR IDENTITIES TO REMAIN A SECRET COME TO 9010 HASHIRAMA STREET.**_

And then afterwards all their systems booted back up. "Hey we got an email." Kurama narrowed her eyebrows as she wheeled over to the center computer. "Hmm…It's empty except for another link. Should we? Or should we not?"

"Do it." Naruto sat down beside his sister. "It can't be worse than the last. Unless it's some virus, then we'll have to get some new PC's and monitors, and maybe even upgrade our keyboards and mouse with the money we stole from that bank last week…Uh…What was it called again?"

"The Blazing National Bank of Konoha. Long ass name for such a poor ass bank. Only about 50 thousand ryo. Then again, most banks only ever hold that much or less. Well, except for the Iron Vault. From what I've heard not even the Black Dragon's been able get in there. But anyways, I've managed to trace the location from where this message came from, and it is indeed in in 9010 Hashirama Street, which is surprising. Anyways, should we go?" Kurama's blue eyes were like beacons in the dark as she looked at him.

"Well, yeah. Otherwise we're going to be screwed and not even Jiraiya would be able to save us from all the legal trouble we'd be in. So yeah, I think that this is really our only option. And besides, do you think whoever is behind this is really going to kill two children?"

"Uh…I am not a child? I am almost the age of consent and I remember correctly you're starting to grow some ha-'"

"Let's not talk about things that happen in puberty alright?" Naruto cut her off, his face turning slightly red. "How are we gonna go about this? I mean we can't just stroll in there right? That'd be crazy!"

The look on his sister's face said something different. Kurama then rolled over to a drawer on the opposite side of the room and pulled out a pistol. "See this? This is an FN Five-Seven. This is a lightweight, polymer based weapon with a large magazine, it can be used by both left handed and right handed people, has low recoil and can penetrate body armour. Whoever decided it was a good idea to mess with us is gonna see just how dangerous we are. Now get dressed. Doctor Kurama has to make a house call."

Naruto furrowed his brow. "Do doctors even still do that?"

His sister sighed exasperatedly.

* * *

 _9010 Hashirama Street, Konoha_

 _4:16 P.M_

 _11/15/16_

 _~Kurama Uzumaki~_

* * *

To say that the car ride to the abandoned warehouse in Hashirama Street was awkward would be a definite understatement. So instead talking to the friends that Kurama never knew her brother had, she did a little more research on the place they were visiting. _And there are no cameras. Just great. This blueprint of the place probably won't be of any help then._

"You alright back Kurama-san?" Snapping her head up from her laptop, Kurama looked Konohamaru Sarutobi in the eye. She swallowed the lump in her throat. "You know it's really weird, Naruto never said he had a sister. Eh, whatever, he probably had a good reason. Anyways, we're here at 9010 Hashirama Street now." He then turned back to his seat and looked at her brother. "Are you sure you don't need a ride back to your place?"

Naruto shook his head. "Nah. We're planning to go over the Mall of Sarutobi anyways afterwards. Meet you and Mirai there?" Konohamaru nodded. "Sounds good. Thanks for the ride Mr. Asuma!"

As soon as they got out of the car, Kurama whispered into Naruto's ear. "You do know that his dad is the Vice-Captain of the All Seeing Eye right? You know what would happen if he were to find out about our activities right?"

Her brother wrinkled his nose. "Ew. Don't say it like that. Makes it sound like we partake in incest of something. That would be wrong. Even though I am quite literally the only boy you've actually talked to. Aside from Jiraiya that is, but he's old, so he doesn't count."

"What does this have to do with what I was saying?"

He raised a finger. "I…don't know…exactly. But my point still stands. Anyways were you able to find out anything about the warehouse? Like a separate exit that is not that well known? Security cameras? A sex dungeon? A red room of pleasure?"

"Please stop. To answer your question though, no. There was nothing. No cameras, and the blueprint of the place I found online is of little help. Anyways…Since when were you friends with the grandchildren of the Prime Minister? More importantly, how?"

"Uh…Well…how do I put this…Um…I saved his sister from getting bullied maybe…two, three years ago maybe when I happened to by walking by their school. And then he offered to take me to the arcade, but then I told Konohamaru that no one does that anymore and then he offered to take me to the amusement park, and then I told him that no goes to amusement parks also. And then after that, a few days later when Jiraiya took you out shopping, he came over and then I convinced him to take me to an electronics store and then we just hit it off from there I guess." He leaned over. "Why you want to know? Jealous or something? That I actually have friends outside from my guild members in White Tundra Online?"

Kurama scoffed. "Not even. I could easily make friends if I actually put the time in. Do I have to remind you who has beaten the most dating simulators between the two of us?"

"Uh, do I have to remind you which one of us has _actual friends?_ Yeah, I thought so. Listen, there's no need to be jealous. It's not like I'll marry his sister or anything. I mean she's cute I guess, but then again my standards are pretty low."

"And what is that supposed to mean little brother? Am I not pretty enough for you to perhaps consider committing incest?" _Oh god. Did I seriously just say that? What the hell. Like…What?_ While it was true that their mother was considered the most beautiful woman alive at one point, it seemed that all Kurama had inherited were her luxurious, crimson tresses.

The warehouse, was dilapidated and falling apart at its fictional seams. Already fallen apart were the wooden beams that kept the upper floor up. Now the entire back section was unreachable unless there were explosives on hand. _No one's here. I expected it but…_ Shaking her head, Kurama pulled out the FN Five-Seven out of the holster sewn into her jacket. _Thank you, you goddamn pervert._

"There's no one here. Keep an eye out. Something isn't right here." Naruto nodded. Kurama loaded a clip into the pistol and chambered a round. She sighed and yelled out into empty warehouse. "HEY! Anyone here!? You wanted to meet us! We're here! Anyone!?"

Out of the corner of her eye, Kurama spotted a shadow shift and move. _Gotcha._ Using her virtual reality gun experience to the test, Kurama quickly brought the pistol up and aimed as a person stepped out of the shadow. Her first shot missed wildly, as the person rolled underneath it. Before Kurama could even get off another shot the shadow disarmed her and disassembled the pistol quickly with one hand.

 _What the hell!_ Standing in front of her was a woman with pink hair and unnaturally bright green eyes. She wore an all-black jumpsuit, with a vertical shoulder holster. If Kurama's memory served her well, then she had certainly seen this woman's face somewhere before. _On one of the ANBU Databases maybe? The ASE? LEAF?_

Kurama was brought out her reverie by the sound of someone closing the door behind them. Leaning against the doorframe was a man in a black jacket, black V-neck shirt and a pair of black pants. As soon as Kurama saw his face, she knew who it was. She had after all had seen his face on the ANBU database just a mere 60 minutes ago. _Sasuke Uchiha!?_

"Kurama and Naruto Uzumaki. AKA the Wizard Class hacker, or rather hackers, called throughout the web as the Fox. You are wanted for stealing over 3 million ryo from over 16 banks over the last 6 years. You are also wanted for hacking into the ASE databases and stealing classified documents and government secrets. You've committed a lot of crimes."

"Hey! If I remember correctly, you went rogue and betrayed ANBU all so you could get revenge on your brother! So don't talk to us about committing crimes!" Naruto roared. Kurama grabbed him the back of his shirt and held him back.

Sasuke chuckled. "Calm down kid. We're not here to arrest you." Kurama blinked. _I guess that makes sense. If I remember correctly this girl with pink hair is Sakura Haruno, who also went rogue._ "In fact…We're here to offer you a job. One that would help you with your financial problems."

Narrowing her eyes, Kurama tightened the grip on Naruto's shirt. "How do you know about that? The only who should know about that is Jiraiya!"

"You wouldn't be stealing money if you didn't need it. You've been very careful hiding your identities, but you haven't been careful enough. No doubt that the government has already caught on. Listen…I have a proposal for you. I am forming a team, to help keep the country safe, from the giant international crime syndicates, all the while getting paid half a million dollars for every organization we take down. And this way, if your identities do come to light, just play it off as a group of criminals forcing you to steal money. How about it?" Kurama felt something at that. The chance to finally be able to use her skills for something good? This was the chance that she had been waiting for, for a long, long time. But Naruto's face fell, the moment he looked at her. He spoke before Kurama could.

"Couldn't you just try and recruit another Wizard class hacker? Like The Snake or…or…There aren't really that many hackers on our level is there?" Sasuke shook his head. Her brother looked at her. "Do you mind if I talk it over with Sister?" He asked cutting off Kurama's enthusiastic answer.

"Go ahead. Just don't take too long. Sakura over here isn't at all patient." The pink haired rogue let go of Kurama's hand shoved her to the side and kept her gun trained on them. "Now, Sakura, there's no need to be violent."

"Hn."

Kurama ignored them and brought them Naruto over to the corner. "Are you actually considering their offer? Why? If we do, we're only going to get into more trouble. While their goal may be kind of noble, it'll only cause more trouble! I thought we agreed never to get into this kind of trouble!" He hissed at her.

"Naruto. You know how much I've wanted to do something useful with my skills! I don't have anything else! I don't have mom's beauty, or dad's charisma, or your friendliness! All I have is this. You don't have to join me Naruto."

Naruto shook his head. "No. If you're going to do this, then so am I. Because if there is one thing that I know, it's that, when the two of us are together, we're unstoppable. Mom is dead. And so is dad. I…I don't want to be left alone."

"You don't have to, Naruto. Please, you don't have to join just because of that! Think about this." However, the determination and the fire never once left her brother's eyes. "You're not going to at least reconsider?"

"Only if you do. Which, knowing you, won't happen. And besides…Someone has to keep you in line."

Kurama nodded. "Then it's settled." With a sigh, Kurama turned around to Sasuke Uchiha, whose lips were curled into a slight smile. "We'll be part of your team."

"Welcome to Hawk."

Kurama grabbed Sasuke's hand firmly and shook.

* * *

 **I started this after I finished reading Bloody Monday. Which I have to say, is…AMAZING. Though there are some parts in the first story where you'd think that M. Night Shyamalan was writing the story of something. But in a good way I'd like to think. Don't let that comparison turn you off. I really, really recommend it to you. And no, my other stories aren't cancelled, I just had to get this off my mind and onto paper.**

 **Also, if you couldn't tell, this story is completely AU. Ages will be different, and some character relationships will be different. And as with my other stories, expect a fair amount of OC's. Also if you spot any mistake in the gamer language that Kurama and Naruto use, feel free to correct me, because even though I consider myself an avid gamer, I do not play MOBA's or CS:GO at all. And same with the hacking parts.**

 **Sorry for the long AN, have a written potato!**


	2. Episode 2

_Shimada Estate, Republic of Fire_

 _8:45 A.M._

 _11/23/16_

 _~Ana Shimada~_

* * *

Today started rather uneventful. The forest outside the Shimada Estate was rather foggy, though that was normal. Ana didn't mind the heavy fog. In fact, it was rather useful in getting up close and personal with her prey. Not that it mattered when she could see them through her infrared scope, but it did help.

 _Hmm. Not a deer, rabbit or even any wolves in sight. I guess it's just going to be one of those days._ And more and more days were often like this. Little to no animals spotted, let alone any hunted. Ana didn't know why it was like this, but it didn't really matter to her. Hunting the deer, the elk, the rabbits, and shooting down the occasional hawk or falcon was starting to get boring. Especially when she could take them down with a single shot. It wasn't a challenge. It wasn't fun. _Since when was it ever fun anyways?_

After 2 hours of sitting up in one of the birch trees, Ana dropped down and began to make the half hour journey back to Shimada Manor. It was the oldest manor in the entire Republic, aside from the ancestral homes of the Uchiha, Senju and the Hyuga. Even from far off in the distance and through heavy fog, Ana could see the 5 towers of the manor looking like fingers reaching up into the sky.

Shimada Manor brought back bad memories. Of her father killing her mother in a drunken haze before killing himself after realizing what he'd done. Of her maid Suzuya hanging herself in the living room. And especially of _that night…_ Ana shook her head. This was no time to be lost in reverie.

Most of Shimada Manor was covered in overgrown vines and sidewalks overrun with grass. Nature had claimed most of the outer Manor, with trees and plants reclaiming the outer walls, but the inner manor looked like it didn't even know the meaning of nature. Sleek, stark white and futuristic walls, with minimalistic décor and design. There was only a single Sakura tree in the center of the courtyard, and even then, the tree itself was pretty small.

Far off in the distance were the gold mines from which the Shimada clan made their fortune. Ana didn't know and didn't care much for it either. As far as Ana was considered, it was all dirty money to her.

The manor was empty when she arrived. _As usual. Grandfather must be out in the mines._ Ana rarely saw the Green Death that was her grandfather as he spent most of his time supervising the mining. And Ana preferred it that way. While she loved her grandfather dearly, and while everything she had learned, she learned from him, Shinji Shimada could be rather overbearing at times. And more often than not, his expectations were beyond what anyone was capable of.

Perhaps that was why Ana was his favourite.

Setting her M24 sniper rifle down by her bedside table, Ana quickly changed into a black shirt and black leggings. Her bedroom was massive, and you could tell that it was made for two people. Ana kept all of her things on the right side of the room, and almost never crossed over to the left side. She had requested to change rooms on more than one occasion, but her grandfather forbade her, saying that it was unseemly for a Shimada to sleep in a small room.

Seeing that the morning fog had finally gone away, Ana slipped a windbreaker on and prepared for the 2 hour drive to Konoha. _Perhaps something interesting will happen. Maybe I'll run into Yuuji again._ But what would she say to someone that she hadn't seen in over 4 years and was never even that close to in the first place? She certainly couldn't talk to him about the incident that drove both him and her away in the first place. Ana to the Konoha Special Forces and Yuuji to who knows where.

 _Special Forces. Hah._ Ana could have outshot them with her eyes blindfolded. While they certainly weren't that bad, but…well that was lie. Her squad members were as incompetent as they came, and she was pretty sure that her drill sergeant hated her. Maybe it was because she was woman? No, that wasn't it. They treated her just like they did everyone else. Like shit. So perhaps the drill sergeant just liked yelling at her.

"Better call grandfather then…" Ana muttered to herself as she dialed his number. "Grandfather? Yeah, it's Ana. I'm going to be out in Konoha for a while, just a heads up." She frowned. "Oh. You're going to gone for a while? How long? A year? How come? I see. You're setting up a new mine somewhere? I see. Well, good luck. I love you grandfather. Bye."

Ana rolled her neck, and pulled out her M82A1's weapon case and slid it into her duffel bag. She never really felt comfortable without a gun. For as long as Ana remembered, she had always been into guns. Even back during her childhood.

The drive to Konoha was quite uneventful, and aside from the usual traffic, Ana arrived in Konoha in approximately two hours. The traffic in Konoha was notorious around the world. And while it had certainly gotten better over the years, it was still bad. Ana was surprised that no one had died during her drive to Konoha. Though there were a fair amount of close calls.

Right as she parked her car alongside a café, her phone buzzed. _Hmm. What's this?_ Someone had messaged her. An unknown number. "What the hell?"

 _ **HELLO ANA SHIMADA**_

Looking around, Ana sat down in one of the booths by the window, all the while keeping a hand on the Glock in her chest holster. _It wouldn't be the first time that I've gotten an anonymous message. Last one didn't end too well._

 _ **WE WOULD LIKE TO TALK WITH YOU**_

"Talk with me eh?" Ana knew something was up. She chugged down her coffee, quickly paid for it and sat in the back of her car and began to assemble her M82A1. "The Dragon free you, whoever you are." Her phone buzzed again.

 _ **IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO MEET UP, COME TO TOBIRAMA'S FOUNTAIN IN HASHIRAMA PARK DOWNTOWN. I"LL BE WAITING.**_

As soon as Ana finished assembling her sniper rifle she threw everything else in the duffel bag aside and stuffed the rifle within. "Now then. Time to go pay someone a visit." Hashirama Park was only a short 10 minute drive from the café. But that wasn't where she was going. No, if Ana remembered correctly, there was skyscraper near the park that had a perfect view of the Fountain. A slight smirk formed on Ana's face.

 _Oh you're going to be in for a rude awakening._

* * *

 _Tobirama Fountain, Hashirama Park, Konoha_

 _10:21 A.M._

 _11/23/16_

 _~Sasuke Uchiha~_

* * *

Ana Shimada was interesting to Sasuke. She was by far the best sniper the Republic had ever seen, and yet she nothing like her grandfather. From what his own father had told him, Shinji Shimada was humble, and had worked hard to make the Shimada Clan the richest in the country. His granddaughter on the other hand, according to testimonies from her drill sergeants, and fellow teammates, was arrogant and often thought of herself as superior to everyone else and saw the people around her as nothing more than nuisances.

" _Sounds like someone we know right?"_ Satoru had said while sharing a look with a smirking Sakura. To an extent that was true. But not anymore. Itachi had seen to that. From what Sasuke understood of her file, Ana was a person who respected you on your actions and of your merit. Not someone who respected you because of your name. That he could understand.

And so he had devised a very simple plan to gain Ana Shimada's respect. It was simple really. Sasuke knew that there was no way in hell that Ana was going to meet up with them. Especially since it would not be the first time that someone made an attempt on her life using this tactic. No, Sasuke knew just the place she would go to, where a sniper would go to.

Tobirama Fountain was in the center of Hashirama Memorial Park, and was in plain view of the one of the tallest skyscrapers in the city. The Academy Tower. A couple of years ago the Academy Tower used to be the HQ of the ASE. From what Sasuke remembered before he went rogue, there were already plans in place to demolish the tower and expand the nearby indoor amusement park.

"Sasuke-kun, it seems that you were right." Kurama's voice came of the earpiece. "According to the Academy Tower's security cameras, Ana Shimada is on her way up to the…65th floor. If you want, I could hack into her phone and leave another message."

"That won't be necessary Kurama. For now, everything is going according to plan. Keep me updated on Ana's status." To say that Kurama and her brother weren't miracle workers, would be a definite understatement. Without them, they would never have found Ana Shimada in the first place. For someone who was a member of one of the highest profile families, Ana had very little online presence. No Facebook profile, no Twitter, nothing. It was by pure luck that Naruto had managed to intercept one of her texts to her missing brother Yuuji.

It was only a simple matter of waiting for the day that Ana would come to Konoha.

Sasuke fiddled around with the special weapon jammer that Satoru had designed in his pocket, it was still in its prototype stage, and Satoru had warned him that there was a slim chance that it might not work. _"Don't worry. I'll have a backup plan just in case the jammer doesn't work. She's called Sakura Haruno."_ Sasuke knew that he was relying on Sakura just a little too much on this mission, but if there was anyone that could stop Ana from blowing his head to smithereens it was the Pink Flower.

"This is Sakura, the target is in sight."

"Good. Kurama, send the next message, Naruto get ready to cut the power as soon as Sakura sends the signal." Everyone responded in unison and off in the distance parked underneath the shadow of the Sakura trees of Hashirama Memorial Park, was the black mustang. Sitting inside, and looking at his phone with a bored expression permanently fixated on his face was Deidara. "Stay Deidara, get off your phone and keep your foot on the pedal."

The small ding that came from his pocket was the signal. Sasuke smiled and pulled out his phone. "Hello Ana." With that, Sasuke walked out from underneath the shade of the Sakura trees and out into the open and stood right in front of the giant fountain, staring right at the sniper glint that anyone with an above average eyesight would be looking at. _Just as I expected. 64_ _th_ _floor, right in the middle._ For some reason, maybe for demolition reasons, the tower was mostly empty. Not that Sasuke was complaining about the stupidity of it. It was rather convenient.

"Who are you?" Ana's voice was like smooth silk. "I'm not keen on strangers stalking me. Especially one as dangerous as you Sasuke Uchiha."

"Why would you ask who I was if you already knew?"

"Just a simple precaution. Now, why are you after me?" Sasuke could help but chuckle. He tilted his head as the sound of Ana chambering a round could be heard through the phone. _Hmm. That sounds like a M82. But which version? The A1 or A2?_ Regardless of which version it was, that just made things more dangerous. The M82 was chambered for fifty caliber rounds. Something that Sasuke doubted he could live getting shot in the head with. "Answer me. Or else you're getting a fifty in your skull. And just so you know, I don't miss. Not at this range. And especially not when you're standing still out in the open."

"Even if there are…let's see…at least a couple dozen people here to see me get shot in the head? Are you going to risk that? And how do you won't…I don't know, miss?" Ana practically growled at the notion. "Sore topic? Listen, everyone misses every once and while. We are only human after all."

"Shut up." Sasuke smirked as there was a slight hesitation before she answered. "Don't think I don't know what you're doing, trying to get into my head. You wouldn't be the first person to try and make me miss by doing that. My drill sergeant tried and failed. So what makes you think you can?"

"Because I'm not doing this alone." With a growl Ana fired. Sasuke felt the corners of his mouth curl up into a smirk as the bullet whizzed by his head and embedded itself into the ground with a small explosion.

"You-you…You made me…miss. YOU MADE ME MISS!" Ana roared and fired one shot after another, each one missing, with one sailing over Sasuke's head by at least a meter. "Wha-what!? How…How did I miss!?"

Chuckling, Sasuke hung up on Ana whilst the shock was settling in. "Cut the power now." And Naruto did. Slipping his phone into his pocket, Sasuke got into the mustang. "Alright, time to head to the Nest. And Satoru? Didn't even have to use the jammer."

"What? Seriously? I mean I wouldn't be surprised, but…Seriously? What did you say to her?"

"Nothing much. But regardless the job is done. Isn't that right Sakura?" The only kind of reply that he got was the sound of grunting and someone being dragged. "That's what I thought. Hey Kurama, you think you could manipulate the traffic lights in our favour?"

"Got it boss."

"Now, Sakura, are you going to be able to get back to the nest without getting caught? I mean, you are going to be lugging around a 21 year old woman on your motorcycle right? If you want, Deidara could take the bus and we'll just stuff Ana in the backseat?"

Deidara raised his hand in objection. "OR, we could just pick them up and put her in the backseat. Insane right? 4 people in one car? Unthinkable. Ludicrous even!" At Sasuke's glare, he shut up. "But you get what I mean right?"

"Of course I do. It's just that there are people everywhere. If the public even so much as sees Sakura carrying the body, we are screwed. Even if Kurama and Naruto were to hack all of the security camera's in the city and wipe out all evidence that would still leave the testimonies of a lot of people to deal with."

"Well, I suppose that's true." Deidara grumbled as every light in front of them lit up green. "So you want me to go and pick up Sakura still?"

"We'll wait. Satoru, any suggestions? I'm listening."

For a while the line was silent. "Okay, I've got something. So you remember how there's a large parkade right across from the tower?"

"Yeah, why?"

"I've been thinking, why not zip line down to the top floor? Sure if anyone looks up we'll be screwed, but it's a better idea than anything I've had so far. The rope I gave to Sakura-chan should be long enough to reach the parkade and it should be strong enough to handle both Sakura-chan and Ana's combined weight."

Then Kurama spoke up. "How about this? We manipulate the traffic lights in a certain way so that a certain section is empty, without any witnesses. It might take a while to do though, but it's the thought that counts right?"

"That could work yeah, but it would take a long time just as you said sis." Naruto said. "If this were at night we could simply just cause a citywide blackout and smuggle the girl right out of there."

Sasuke's eyes widened. "Naruto, you're a genius. Deidara drop me off at this address." Sasuke punched the address into the GPS. "Sakura, stay put. I know you're not patient, but Naruto's idea might just be the best idea we have. If I come up with some miracle of idea, I'll tell you, but for now, stay put."

"Roger that. Just don't make me wait too long. It's unsightly to keep a woman waiting. Especially two." Everyone shared a laugh before Sasuke took the earpiece out.

"So where is this 247 Flamebird Street? Ah never mind, it's on the GPS. Anyways, why do you want me to drop you off?"

Rolling his neck, Sasuke set his Glock aside and took the dagger hidden in his coat out. "You read the files on the other potential member's right? Tenten Suzuki and Rock Lee? Yeah, that's where they live. Or at least I'm pretty sure it is. It's been over 3 years since I last met up with them. It's weird. They live together, but there was never really any indication that there was anything going on between the two of them."

Deidara raised an eyebrow. "Oh? So Tenten Suzuki is single? Nice…I mean what a shame. Such a beautiful and independent woman such as herself." Sasuke chuckled. "What? I have a chance right? Right?"

"I guess so. Just try not to drive her off with your weirdness alright?"

"I promise boss. And besides I'm not that weird am I?" At Sasuke's pointed look, Deidara sighed. "Well, I guess I am. I mean, I am obsessed with explosions and call them my art, but that's not weird right? At least I'm not some dude who calls puppet making art."

"Well, it is a form of art. Just different. Just as yours is different from what people normally think of art. Sculpting, instead of pen on paper."

"I wouldn't say that the sculpting is my true art, but it certainly helped scrape in some extra dough. No, I consider my explosions my true art. Art to me, is meant to be fleeting. Art lasts in a moment, not in an eternity. It is meant to be admired for only in a moment." Deidara said as he turned onto a bridge crossing the Senju River. "But you are entitled to your wrong opinion about art, yeah."

"I'm not much of artist. Unless you could call my talents artistic." Sasuke replied. He then tapped Deidara on the shoulder and removed his seatbelt. "Alright, drop me off here, it isn't too far a walk. Afterwards I want you to go back to the Nest and get the Truck. It should have a zip line Satoru should understand what my plan is."

"Alright Sasuke my man. Try and put in a good word for me if you could, yeah." Sasuke shook his head, chuckling.

"Yeah, sure. Don't get your hopes up though, but I'll try." He wouldn't. It simply wasn't time and besides, Sasuke had a feeling that Deidara was only joking anyways.

If Sasuke remembered correctly, then their house should have been right at the corner of the street. _There it is. 247. Doesn't seem like it changed much since the last time I was here._ The house was a fairly large, red and gold two story house. The lawn was decorated with gnomes and the occasional flamingo. Sasuke could make out the faint outline of the salmon ladder in the backyard as well as parts of the training course that Lee had been building three years ago. _Seems that he's finished it. Well, he has had three years to finish._

Before Sasuke could even step on their porch, the door opened. Leaning against the doorframe was a woman, slightly shorter than Sasuke was. Her messy brown hair was pulled back into a ponytail. She was wearing a black formfitting tank top and steel blue leggings. For a while the two of them stared at each other, not moving.

She broke the silence. "What brings a dead man to my humble abode?" A smirk gracing her lips. "Come on in. We have three years to catch up on. Mostly you though. You've missed a lot." Tenten spun around and made her way over to the couch just a few meters away.

The interior of her house was red with light touches of gold, and the living room floor was covered in scarlet carpeting. Jutting from one of the walls was a wall-mounted T.V with what Sasuke had to say was shoddily secured at best. There were 3 couches arranged in the living room, two parallel to each other and other just slightly behind both of them placed against the wall. Numerous weapons decorated the wall, from ancient swords, to modern rifles.

Tenten patted the seat next to her. "So again, why are you here Sasuke? I don't suppose you had anything to do with the car chase a couple of days ago? Because the only person I know who is crazy enough, and skilled enough to start and survive a car chase like that is you. I only hope that you coming to visit doesn't end with an explosion blowing our house up. I worked hard for this baby you know."

"I'll try my best. But you of all people should know that being associated with me doesn't end well. But, here I am, in your home."

"Yeah, you are. So tell, how are you alive? Last I checked you were supposed to be getting lethally injected. And yet here you are, looking as good as ever." A somber look crossed her face for a split second. "But you did…You committed a lot of crimes. Murder. Kidnapping. Destruction of property. I mean that bridge was quite literally the only thing that Wave had going for it. And you blew it the fuck up."

Sasuke shrugged. "There was no on it. I made sure of that." Tenten raised an eyebrow. The sound of a tea kettle going off filled the room. "Tea?"

"Of course. Would you like some?" Sasuke nodded wordlessly. "Wait here." She walked over out of view to the kitchen. "But anyways…You kidnapped the granddaughter of the Tsuchikage. Who, is remember correctly was _6_ at the time. How the hell did that help you track down Itachi?"

"It didn't. But before you start screaming at me like the time I left you at Neji's house on your 18th birthday, I had a good reason. Have you ever heard of the Brave Company?"

"That mercenary group made up of serial rapists, murderers, and paedophiles? Yeah. There isn't anyone in law enforcement that doesn't know who the Brave Company is. Everyone has nightmares about their leader. I forgot his name, and I don't think I want to know. But I do know that he raped little children, killed their parents in front of them and did a bunch of other really, really messed up shit."

"Well, when I heard that someone was hiring them to kidnap the Tsuchikage's very young granddaughter…I had to step in. I personally kidnapped the girl and I locked her in a hidden room where no one, aside from myself would have been able to find her. All the while her servants and maids were being raped and tortured."

Tenten returned with two mugs. She shivered. "God the screams must have been horrible. How the hell did you last without killing any of them?"

"Well, I killed at least 10 of them. They were asking for the granddaughter. They thought _I_ was raping her and keeping her to myself." Sasuke said with a disgusted tone seeping into his voice. "Not many people know it, but I killed most of the Brave Company. Though too bad their leader wasn't there. I would have enjoyed killing him. But regardless, I spent the whole night "protecting" Kurotsuchi Takishima."

With a raised eyebrow, Tenten lifted her mug. "Well then, cheers to our noble hero Sasuke Uchiha, protector of little girls from horrible rapists." The two old friends shared a laugh. "But you still haven't answered my question. Why are you here?"

Sasuke sighed. "Perhaps we should wait for Takuma to get here."

"And why should we wait for me?" A youthful voice said from the entrance. Standing there was man just a little bit taller than Sasuke, with black, bowl cut hair and bushy eyebrows. A grin was plastered on his face. "And for the last time Sasuke, call me Lee. It feels so weird to be called Takuma. But I digress. Anyways, it's good to see you alive and well Sasuke. I had thought something was up with the execution."

"They allowed you guys to see me executed?" Sasuke raised an eyebrow as he set his tea down on the coaster. "Why would they allow two ex-members who kind of betrayed them, to see their rogue, traitor friend get assassinated?"

"Oh no, they didn't do that. They broadcasted it on live T.V" Tenten said to him. "I didn't mention it to you because I thought you had already seen it, and because I didn't believe once that it was actually you."

Lee stepped into the room, setting his single strap backpack on top of the desk in the corner of the room. "Yeah, the guy they were executing looked a little too tan, and his complexion was completely different plus his hair was wrong. I think they didn't care, because most of the public didn't even know what you looked like aside from having black hair." He sat down on the couch across from Sasuke and Tenten. "So why are you here Sasuke? I can't imagine you're here just for a visit. If you are though, why the hell are you here instead of fleeing the country so you can enjoy the glories of youth?" _Well, at least that hasn't changed._

Tenten chimed in as well. "Yeah you still haven't answered my question, why are you here Sasuke? Why are alive to more exact? You've been a thorn in the side of the ASE, ANBU and LEAF for over three years now, and I doubt they would allow a man as dangerous as you get away when they had you."

Again, Sasuke sighed. "Okay. Listen, the day I of my trial, Danzo Shimura gave me an offer. In exchange for my freedom, I would have create a team of the very best, and only the best. And with that team, I am to eliminate every major crime syndicate in the world. Or at least try to. And I have a feeling I'm on the radar of the biggest one in the Land of Fire. The Rising Sun."

"So you're here to recruit us, is that it?" Tenten said. "If so, then count us in."

"I want you guys to at least consider…Wait…What? But I even prepared a whole speech about why this is the right thing to do and this a once in a lifetime chance! And you just…accept. Just like that?"

"Listen Sasuke. For the past week or so, there have been elite Rising Sun troops patrolling our neighbourhood. I have a feeling they're not just sightseeing. After all, one of the reasons you came to us was because we helped take down the first iteration of the Rising Sun." Tenten said, titling her head. "In fact, there at least 20 to 30 soldiers outside right now."

Looking out the window, Lee had rolled up his arms and cracked his knuckles. "I suspected something. Weird. Only one of them is armed. Looks like…Tenten come and take a look, I'm not good with guns." She strode over. "You see that guy leaning against Raidou's car?"

"That my friend is an Adaptive Combat Rifle. Better known as the ACR. How the hell a gang like the Rising Sun managed to get highly advanced military weaponry like that is mindboggling." She glanced over at Sasuke. "How are we going to do this? We're going to have to take him out first. And before you ask, I don't have any ammo for any of the weapons I have mounted on the walls. They're just there for décor."

Sasuke sighed. "And I left most of my weapons back in the mustang. Shit." Tenten raised an eyebrow at him.

"Most?"

A slight smirk formed on Sasuke's face. "Yeah." He said reaching down into a hidden ankle holster and pulled out a Glock pistol. "First time I've had to use this." He then shot Tenten a look. "But you do have a weapon with ammo here right?"

She scoffed. "What kind of intelligence agent do I think I am Sasuke Uchiha? Of course I do." Lifting up one of the gun frames, underneath it was a button. "Cliché I know, but no ever expects the hidden button." Whirring sounds, and the sound of gears turning filled the room and after 5 seconds, Sasuke could see the faint outline of an AUG A3 with a holographic reflex sight on it. "Alright boys, some good news and bad news." Tenten called out as she slipped on a dark purple track jacket and a pair of sneakers. "Good news, we got a rifle. Bad news, I only two magazines."

"That'll have to do. Alright how are going to this?" Lee asked as he stood beside the door, waiting for the Rising Sun soldiers to charge in without a care like the criminals they were.

"Easy." Sasuke replied, chambering a round. "We kill all of them and book it." He slowly raised the gun towards eye level. Across from him, Tenten stuffed the second magazine into her jacket pocket. "Unless you guys have anything you'd like to bring along with you?"

"Nah. Only clothes really. But those can be easily replaced. These guns however? Well, I guess we could come back for them when the dust figuratively clears, but I'd hate to leave them behind." Tenten said, looking at the G36 and TAR-21 across the room sadly.

Lee narrowed his eyes. "But didn't you like add in an electrical system that shocks anyone who touches your guns with permission? And I remember correctly, you did it using my money too!" His best friend only shrugged.

"Enough. We're wasting time as it is. Tenten, I call the 6 guys on the right side and Lee you'll probably want to stick to the guys up close." The two of them nodded and inched closer to the door.

Without any warning the door burst open and the first goon that entered got a knee to the gut. Lee then turned him around and used him as a human shield. Sasuke dove out from behind him and fired at two men who were near the telephone pole. Both of them went down with bullet holes between their eyes.

Tenten strode out and fired a burst towards the three guys over to the left trying to hide behind a hedge. They didn't stand a chance, if the spray of blood was any indication. To Sasuke's left, Lee lunged forward towards the closest soldier and struck her in the gut before twisting her neck 360 degrees. Without skipping a beat Lee glided over to the next one and the next.

Meanwhile the lone Rising Sun soldier with a gun hid behind the car he had been leaning against and was taking pot shots at the three of them. _Thank god he can't hit jack shit._ Sasuke thought as he rolled forward and shot another soldier in neck.

With a battle cry, Lee ducked underneath a sloppily thrown punch and thrust his elbow upwards with enough force to break the jaw. He then twirled around, grabbed the nearest soldier by the neck and quickly snapped it. Another soldier attempted to come in from behind, but got shot in the back of the head by Tenten who quickly fired a shot towards the gun-toting soldier.

Several men turned the corner and got rewarded with a bullet in their heads, courtesy of Sasuke. He took a mag and took a short look before sliding it back in. "Hey! I've only got a few bullets left! We need to hurry because it looks like they've got reinforcements coming in." pointing at an oncoming convoy of cars.

Tenten strode over to the downed gunman and picked up his rifle and swung the man's bandolier over her shoulder. She then shouldered her rifle and shot the driver of the first car in the head, sending it careening to a halt. "Let's go boys!" She shouted sliding over the hood of the car and sprinting back into her house. Sasuke took some time to shoot at the convoy before closing the door.

"Well this is useless now." Sasuke said, discarding the pistol. "And why are you grinning like that? Seriously, it's kind of weird." Across from him, leaning against the wall with a vulpine grin on her face, Tenten shrugged.

"It's just been so long since I've seen action! That's partially why I accepted your offer Sasuke. It's been so fucking boring ever since Lee and I have resigned. Literally just three years of doing absolutely jack fucking shit!" She let out a breath. "Anyways, we should get going, the car should be in the back. "

Sasuke slid into the passenger's seat, but otherwise didn't buckle up. Tenten tossed him the ACR and the bandolier which she nabbed off of the soldier. "Hope you put that to good use Sasuke. I can't take them all out." Tenten chuckled. "Only you would be a part of 2 car chases in the span of only two weeks."

"Yeah I guess." Sasuke said pulling back the charging handle of the ACR. "But I'd rather not have this kind of attention on me so early in my career as a Crime Syndicate Annihilator." Lee came running into the garage and slid over top of the car and swung himself into the open driver's seat.

"Okay! Where are we heading off to my youthful friends?" He proclaimed quickly accelerating out of the garage and out onto the open road. Behind them, Sasuke counted at least 14 cars. Each of them full.

"That's a lot of guys." Sasuke whispered as he rolled down the windows and stuck himself out. _It's raining. Hm._ "I'd prefer we not attract any unwanted attention. Lee do you still remember the way back to my place? And I don't mean the apartment on the outskirts of town."

Lee furrowed his brow. "You mean the Uchiha mansion? I thought you didn't want to go there? I mean, doesn't your father still live there with Satoru?"

"Nah, my father moved out. He's one of the few people in the government who actually knows I'm still alive, so he left me the mansion to use as headquarters."

"Let me guess." Tenten started, a deadpan look on her face. "You called it something bird related. Probably like the Bird Cage or the Bird House, or maybe even the Nest. Something stupid like that. Why everything has to be bird related I don't know."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "I'll have you know that it isn't just bird related, it is hawk related. But regardless, you are right, in that HQ is called the Nest. Now get it out of your system." Sasuke waited for the convoy to start firing at him, but they never did, instead, the completely went the wrong the direction as Lee made a sharp right turn. "What the fuck? Are they blind or something?"

"I don't think they know what our car actually looks like." Tenten said, relieved as she set her AUG A3 down beside her and buckled up her seatbelt. "Woo! That's more action than I've seen in three fucking years combined! Hooey! That was fun! In a really messed up way."

With a chuckle Sasuke had to agree with her. After three years of being on the run and being hunted down by the people he had considered comrades, a good firefight with two of his friends was the most fun he'd had in a long time.

 _Perhaps taking up this offer wasn't such a bad idea after all._

* * *

 _The Nest, Konoha_

 _5:55 P.M._

 _11/23/16_

 _~Satoru Uchiha ~_

* * *

After Deidara left with the car modifications, Satoru returned to control room. It was medium sized, with enough space to fit a giant 150 inch TV screen as well as his giant holographic table. Boy did both of those cost a fortune. The two, triple monitor setup that Kurama and Naruto were using were nothing compared to how expensive those two were.

With a sigh Satoru leaned against the desk brought up the blueprints to the Academy Tower. He had already thoroughly looked over it at least 5 times and still hadn't found any other way to get Sakura and Ana out of there. It was a good thing that he had a pill on hand that put the victim to sleep from 24 up to 36 hours, unless intentionally woken up. _"Where did you get this?"_ Sasuke had asked. To be honest, Satoru didn't remember. He just found the pills on one of the shelves that morning. It was better not to ask. Though he did see Sakura looking a little embarrassed from his periphery.

"Anything interesting happen while I was gone guys?" He asked Naruto since his sister had hear headset on and was playing some game called over something or whatever. It looked cool from what he had seen though and Kurama was good. Then again so was Naruto.

Naruto turned around. "Nope. Not unless you want to call the Windy Nation Elections interesting. I mean it is and god do I get a laugh out of the right wing party's representative. Dude's gonna ruin that country, but boy is he fun to watch." He then turned around and brought up the city's traffic grid system. "Anyways wanna mess up the city's traffic? It's fun! I guess. In a really nerdy way."

"Uh, no. I don't to be the cause of a 20 car pileup."

"You really think I'd let something like that happen? How low of you to think that of me." Naruto said lightheartedly. "But seriously, I'd like something to do. I would play some League, I'd rather not drown in salt today. I could go on Village of Concord, it's nice to troll people and all, but sometimes the people you play with are so fucking stupid. Ugh! Why is this so boring!?"

Satoru shrugged. "I don't know really. Anyways you should be starting to get a move on in hacking into the power system. It's just about dark enough that no one is going to see anything when all the lights are off."

He looked over at Kurama who was zoned out. Satoru had to admit that she was pretty. Long scarlet hair that reached all the way to just above an average sized butt. Bright blue eyes that shone like blue stars. She wore a white and magenta long sleeved shirt with the sleeves rolled up to her elbow. It was fairly formfitting and actually showed off quite a bit of Kurama's curves. Quite frankly Kurama Uzumaki was like no other girl that Satoru had ever seen. _I guess being the daughter of the woman who was once called the most beautiful alive helps as well._ Then again the only other female that Satoru could even compare Kurama to was Sakura. And that was because they were the only females that he actually knew. For most of his childhood Satoru spent it in his room tinkering with electronic gadgets and trying to figure out how to make them work instead of outside. _Well that's two things we have in common now._

"Could you stop ogling my sister fucking pervert." Naruto said. "I mean she turns 18 in like a month. If you start dating her wouldn't that make her a paedophile or something? Ah whatever." The blonde hacker turned his attention back to his own three monitors. "And just so you know, hacking into the power grid is easier than you think. I mean it wouldn't be the first time she and I have had to hack into the power grid. If I remember correctly, the last time we did was…Ah yes, last month. I don't remember why though."

It was then that Satoru's phone beeped. _Satoru, I sent Tenten and Rock Lee ahead. They should arrive at the Nest in 20 minutes or so. Currently I'm on my way to the top floor of the parkade across from the Academy Tower. Now, tell Naruto to start the blackout as soon as it turns 6._ "Alright, Naruto as soon as it turns 6 Sasuke wants you to start the blackout. Can you do that?"

"Yup. Now gotta wait. And wait…And wait. Truth or dare Satoru?"

"No. I'm not a child." At Naruto's pouty look, Satoru sighed. "Alright fine. Truth." The blonde smirked deviously as he rubbed his hands. "Just get on with it. And it's just this one question alright? I'm answering anything else."

"Alright, is it true that you think my sister is hot?"

"Hell yeah I do." Naruto scoffed. "What it's true!"

"Well, I'll be sure to tell her that. Don't worry, she'll probably think I'm lying or something stupid like that. Anyways, it's time to black this shit out!" After a dramatic pause, Naruto pressed a key on his computer and everything, quite literally went black. "Okay, wait that wasn't supposed to happen."

Kurama growled and took her headphones off. "Idiot! You forgot to keep the power on in the Nest! That's what you did wrong!" She slid over to his computer and began to rapidly type away as the auxiliary power turned on and their systems booted up. "Don't worry. This shouldn't take…too long…Okay, this might take a while."

Everyone groaned.

* * *

 _Academy Tower 64_ _th_ _floor, Konoha_

 _6:01 P.M._

 _11/23/16_

 _~Sakura Haruno~_

* * *

Hefting the body over her shoulder under the cover of darkness wasn't the problem. It was the fact that if Sakura made even the slightest mistake, then Ana would fall 64 floors down to her death. And while Sakura would have preferred to just drag the body over to the parkade, Sasuke had wanted to do it dramatically of course. _That's just like him._ With a sigh, Sakura carefully secured the harness around herself and double checked that the harness was securely attached to the zip line.

"This is Sakura ready to zip line. Over." She whispered into her earpiece.

"Alright, just remember, hold tightly." Sasuke called back. "And go slowly. Also, just in case you do fall, I have rapidly inflating airbag that I can throw down to the ground. But I'd rather not have to use it. Over."

Taking in a deep breath, Sakura took a couple of steps back and then ran forward, leaping from the broken window, holding onto Ana as tightly as she could. _How she could sleep through this, pill or no pill, is beyond me._ As the pavement of the parkade began to appear, Sakura clicked a button on the side of harness and with a loud snap, the zip line split unevenly into two. Landing softy on her feet, Sakura handed Ana over to Sasuke who put her into the backseat of the mustang.

"Your bike is somewhere around here right?" Sasuke asked, closing the door. In response Sakura pulled out her keychain and clicked on the motorcycle keys with a loud beep. Seconds later, her Kawasaki Ninja 300 rolled up the ramp. "Oh yeah. I forgot Satoru added that feature in. Well, regardless, we should probably go different routes to wave off any possible pursuers."

Sakura chambered a round in her M9. "We could always kill them."

"Killing isn't always the answer Sakura. But if push comes to shove, you are free to kill them. Just try not to cause any unnecessary damage will you?" Sasuke sighed, buckling up and leaning back in his seat. "By the way, could you turn the A/C on Deidara? It's getting pretty hot in here."

"Eh!? Why don't you do it yourself! Lazy bastard."

Sasuke noticed Sakura's gaze on him. "Yes Sakura?"

"How did you get her to miss? Especially when you were literally a sitting duck. Someone with aim as good as Ana should never miss a shot like that. And yet you got her to miss every single one."

The smile on Sasuke's face told her everything she needed to know. "Words, have a lot of power Sakura. I only made Ana Shimada miss one shot. And then she lost her concentration and rushed her shots which in turn caused her to miss. As to how I got her to miss in the first place?" He shrugged. "Even I don't know. But, Sakura is why killing isn't always the answer."

Sakura rolled her eyes and began to drive away before Sasuke called out to her one last time. "Oh and by the way, could you stop by the Tobirama fountain again? I have another meeting scheduled there, but I'm afraid I can't go. Don't worry, he knows you're coming."

This time it was Sakura who sighed, before snapping her head over her shoulder, "You set up a meeting with Shino Aburame without telling us? Figures." And without further ado, Sakura drove away. The Academy Tower was only a two minute drive away from the fountain and with the traffic at a standstill, it was an even shorter drive. By now all of the power was returning, if the buildings lighting up one by one was any indication.

Waiting for her, leaning against a tree near the fountain was Shino Aburame. He wore an olive green, knee length trench coat over a slate grey hooded windbreaker. To top it all off, he even wore a pair of shades. At night. _Still hasn't changed a bit._ Without saying a word, she leaned against the tree opposite Shino.

For a while the two of them just stood there analyzing the other. Shino was the best tracker and infiltrator that Sakura had ever seen. He was able to sneak into the most secure prison in the Republic, the Blood Prison. Though it was no Iron Rock Fortress or Sky Cell, it was still a nightmare to get into, let alone doing it unseen. He also had for escaping from seemingly impossible traps, if Sakura remembered correctly. Sakura could recall the time that Shino had been locked into extreme isolation room with a straightjacket and a single bobby pin to find in the pitch black darkness of night. It only took Shino 10 minutes to escape. Sakura wouldn't have been surprised if Shino could sneak into the Iron Vault and escape without anyone every even knowing he was even there.

Sakura knew that he had resigned from the ASE after getting caught once. From what she knew, Shino was thrown into a cell and was never seen again. Almost. Exactly 2 months later, he was sighted sneaking into the Military state of Rain.

Finally, when the silence was starting to become unbearable, Shino spoke up. "You have a proposal for me. How do I know this? Sasuke told me. It is something about forming a team of the best of the best to eliminate the big three crime syndicate is it not? I deduced when I noticed that Deidara Kurosawa had suddenly vanished and was last sighted with Sasuke Uchiha. And when the genius hacker the Fox suddenly stopped hacking, my suspicions only deepened."

 _Right. I forgot he talked like this. "_ You got us. Do you want a prize?" He only stared at her blankly behind his shades. Sakura chuckled. "Okay, you figured it out, which should be expected. So what's your answer? Are you going to join us? Our team would be so much more effective if you decide to join. There are very few people out there with your type of skillset."

"Are there really? What about Yugito Nii? Or Kakashi Hatake, Zabuza Momochi or even Kankuro Sabaku. Why them you ask? They are all extremely talented infiltrators and escape artists. And Kakashi Hatake is the best tracker in the world and he was formerly your mentor was he not? He is more likely to know your style and know how to work with your skillset."

Kakashi Hatake. Now that was a name that she hadn't heard in a long time. "I don't know if you know, but Kakashi hasn't been seen in over 5 years. And besides, he isn't nearly as good as an escape artist as you are. So what do you say Shino?"

Shino remained silent, before making his way towards her bike. Sakura felt her lips curl into a small smile. "I guess that's a yes then."

 _Mission complete._

* * *

 **So Overwatch came out. Gonna be playing that for a while. And yes, I did base the Shimada clan of this fic on the Shimada brothers Hanzo and Genji. And if you don't know what Overwatch is, look it up.**

 **Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress BTW? Like Attack on Titan. But better. And that ending theme? Ear-gasms all around.**


	3. Episode 3

_The Blood Prison, Republic of Fire_

 _10:45 P.M._

 _5/05/17_

 _~Sasuke Uchiha~_

* * *

Hiding in plain sight as a prison guard was something that Sasuke was used to. It wouldn't have been the first time he'd done it. But never in the most secure prison in the entire Republic. There was a reason that the prison was called the Crimson Fortress. Anyone who tried to escape only became another layer of red to blood soaked stone walls reinforced by 2 meters of a steel alloy.

With a sigh, he pushed the prisoner along into an interrogation room in the southern wing of the prison on the fourth floor. From what Sasuke could tell, there were only really 2 entrances and exits into the Prison. The north and eastern entrances. To the south was a sheer 500 meter drop into the sharp rocks of the Bay of Flames and to the west was the largest mountain range in the Republic of fire blocking the way. The builders of the prison could never really break through all the way so they left it as a natural barrier. Its floors were too thick to be dug through, the sewer pipes were too small for a person to fit through as well as the vents and same with the windows. There were guards posted at every cell, each armed with an HK416 assault rifle.

Across from him the other guard roughly shoved the prisoner into a steel chair and sat across from him. The third guard moved positions to behind the second guard. She dipped her head and let her brown eyes lock onto Sasuke's own.

" _Camera's hacked. You are good to go guys."_ Came Kurama's voice.

Sasuke rolled his neck and clenched his fists tight. Across from him, Tenten lifted her head up and stood waiting for Sasuke to make the signal. Behind him, Sasuke felt the fourth guard shift around and move to the side. The sound of Tenten's fingers tapping the slide of the pistol handle at certain intervals was the only sound in the room.

 _On your go. I'll take out the guy to the side and you take the guy interrogating._ Sasuke nodded and lifted three fingers. Two fingers. He put a hand on the dagger strapped to his forearm. 1 finger. Tenten's hand moved the handle of the dagger in the tactical holster on her right thigh. No fingers.

Quickly, Tenten smoothly took the dagger out and threw into the fourth guard's exposed neck, whilst the dagger slipped out from its scabbard and was thrown into the interrogator's forehead. And then without pause, Sasuke took out the dagger stuck within the fourth guard's neck and cut the prisoner's binds and lifted him up.

"Alright, the HVT should be in the extreme isolation which if I remember correctly is in the top floor of the north wing. Move out." Sasuke said, attaching a suppressor onto his Glock, reached over to the dead guard to the right and tossed his Glock over to the prisoner who shed his prison jumpsuit and slipped on the second guard's uniform. "Nice acting guys, sorry about making you the bait Shino, but you do have the highest pain tolerance and are the quietest out of all of us. Anyways, let's go!"

Sasuke swiftly opened the door and shot the first guard to the right in the head, whilst Tenten shot his partner. Craning his head to get a better look around the corner, Sasuke realized that the rest of the guards don't know that something has happened to the other guards. They could easily sneak through the prison without getting caught. But that would take too long and they were on a tight, tight schedule.

"Cut the lights."

And then everything went black.

Before the guards could realize what was happening the three of them went to work and eliminated them as fast as possible " _Alright, power should be out for approximately 10 minutes. I've also managed to open up the cells in the east and west wings to cause a distraction."_ Kurama told them, the sound of her rapid typing bleeding over through the coms.

"Good job. Satoru any word on Bravo team's end?" Sasuke asked, slipping in a new mag and pulling back the slide. He then opened the door into the stairwell and began to jump from floor to floor, Tenten and Shino following closely behind him.

"Akaza Shibuya has yet to show up, but according to traffic camera and nearby phone cameras, he is well on his way to Warehouse 417 with a squad of 10 Rising Sun elites. ETA is 9 minutes. I'd advise you not to rush things and possibly make a stupid mistake, but time is of the essence go fast, and do it efficiently. Satoru out."

"How corny." Tenten snickered, shooting a guard up in the upper floor in head causing him to fall down to the ground. "But he is right I guess. Time's a wastin!" She ducked under a bevy of fire and slid into cover before taking out three guards near the entrance into the cafeteria.

"Hn." Shino mumbled as he ran past her, reloading and then swung his pistol into the windpipe of the south wing's warden. "Taken out one of the wardens. I'm taking his uniform. Why you ask? Because if we need to return here, disguising myself as warden will allow me to get into places that a normal guard won't be able to."

Sasuke nodded in approval. "Alright, Kurama think you could seal off the south wing?" He kicked open the door to the cafeteria and quickly took out the two guards standing by the vending machine having a little chat. They were the only guards in the cafeteria. _I guess they're probably over in the west and east wings dealing with prison riots._ There was a chance that things might go south as the Blood Prison never really had a prison riot of this caliber if at all.

" _You got it boss."_

Unlike the south wing, where the least unruly prisoners were held, and unlike the west and east wings which housed the most unruly, the north wing was scarce with inmates. Only the worst of the worst and the most dangerous were locked up in the north wing. Each cell was in isolation. But the top floor of the north wing was extreme isolation. There were only 2 inmates on the floor and each on the opposite side of the wing. Each of them were guarded by 20 guards each with cameras covering every angle imaginable. Getting into the extreme isolation cells required four access codes that changed every hour and a retinal scan of either the warden of the north wing or the head warden.

"Alright, remember, there's a quick way up to the top floor without having to go through all the guards in the lower floors." Satoru called out. "There should be a small, unused maintenance elevator to your far right. It should take you all the way up, but only one at a time, unless you could somehow find a way to all fit in."

"We'll find a way. Status update on Bravo team?"

"Still no sign of Akaza Shibuya. He should be arriving soon though. Don't worry. I'll notify you when Akaza gets here and I'll patch you in to Sakura in case something unexpected happens. Satoru out."

With a deep sigh, Sasuke holstered the Glock and silently and swiftly made his way to the small and old maintenance elevator. It certainly looked unused alright. Rusted iron bars protruding up from the dented metal platform. The chain of the counterweight was pretty rusty as well and it looked like the cable holding it up would break at any moment.

"That doesn't look safe at all." Tenten commented, looking up into the blackness of the elevator shaft. "Couldn't we just climb it? I mean, I would definitely feel safer that way. It would take longer though."

"I'm not worried about it taking longer." Sasuke replied. There was no way in hell he was going to use the maintenance elevator. Not if he valued his life. "I'm worried that you two won't be able to keep up with me." To which Tenten scoffed and Shino simply raised his eyebrows. "In fact, I'll give you two a 10 second head start."

Before he even finished, Tenten and Shino were already on their way up, climbing the wall like they were lizards. _I think I've given them more than enough time._ With a slight chuckle Sasuke grabbed a hold of a crack in the wall and began to climb. The elevator shaft was falling apart. Cracks covered the walls and several pipes jutting out making for easy foot and handholds. He scaled the walls like a monkey. He only stayed in one spot more a moment before leaping to next crack or the next pipe. It wasn't exactly quiet, but it was quick and there was no one near the elevator shaft.

He reached the top floor in half the time it took Tenten and Shino to slowly climb up. Though it was slow to _him._ The hallway, was slate grey with the occasional panels of white and black. Sasuke spied at least 15 cameras. "Kurama, can you hack the cameras?"

" _Already done boss. By the way, those black and white panels? Yeah, those have an infrared and magnetic scanner hidden inside to scan the entire length of the wall. I've managed to disable them, but only for 5 minutes though. Same goes for the cameras."_

"Thanks for the information. Moving on, you got the access codes?" Sasuke asked making it to the other end of the hallway in 8 long and quick strides.

" _The first access code is 401040501050702. The second is 90151208022012, the third is 40167 and the final one is 00010001. Think you can remember all of those? If you want I can plug them in myself. It might take a while to get into the system but I can do it."_

"Alright go ahead. Satoru can you see the location of the north wing's warden? We need her to get into the cell. If not, we can probably just blow into the cell using Deidara's modified C4. Though I'd rather not. It attracts too much unwanted attention. "

"Ah…Let me see…Okay, according to the camera feed, the warden should be on the move. She's currently by the cell on the opposite side of the wing and it looks like she's headed your way. Probably to check on the codes and switch them up. You guys think you can take out all twenty guards and incapacitate the warden?"

Sasuke scoffed. "What kind of question is that? I think the real question is, how fast can we take out all twenty guards and incapacitate the warden. And the answer to that is very fast."

"Alright whatever, the warden is right around the corner. Satoru out." Looking over to his teammates, Sasuke nodded and turned the safety off before opening the door at the exact same time as the warden.

Right before anyone could react, Kurama cut the lights. And just as the panic was about to set in Sasuke grabbed the warden, shot the five guards across from him in their exposed necks in quick succession. He then shot the two guards standing by the cell door and then the third who was walking by.

To his right, Tenten took out the six guards near the front entrance into the section, before switching her to the lone guard standing by the intercom and the one by the out of place fichus plant. Shino quickly disposed the remaining five quickly. Sasuke then tightened his choke hold on the warden until he felt the woman pass into unconsciousness.

"Alright room cleared. How fast was that Satoru?"

"That took you guys 6.78 seconds." Satoru actually sounded surprised. "You know I'm still wondering why we didn't just do what people do in spy movies and forge his retinal signature or whatever it's called."

"Because we barely had any time to prepare for this remember? We only had 3 days to come up with a plan and we still had that meeting with Akaza Shibuya and a weapons dealer to worry about." Sasuke replied handing the warden over to Shino who forcefully opened her eyes and placed it in front of the retinal scanner. "Speaking of which, how are things going on their end?"

"The meeting is going fine. But Akaza is playing a little hard ball and is trying to negotiate for a cheaper price with weapons dealer. Ana says that she has a clear shot at Akaza. Should we let her take it?"

"No. The plan was to tail him back to the Rising Sun hideout in Tanzaku Gai, and gather all the information we can find out about it. We can't take him out just yet. We need to figure out a plan to capture him. He's one of the captains of the organization, so he probably knows a lot, or knows just enough. Regardless, keep him alive. For now just watch and see how the dice falls."

"Sasuke! We need your help opening the door." Tenten called out as she and Shino gripped the side of the door. Shaking his head, Sasuke went on the other side of the slightly ajar door and began to push as Tenten and Shino pulled hard. After half a minute of hard pushing and pulling the door was open. "Whew! And where is our HVT?"

Cowering in the corner, looking very malnourished and bruised was a man with silver hair and pale skin. He had his head tucked into his knees and was whimpering lightly. When Sasuke approached, he began sobbing.

"Mizuki Asashiro. The only man stupid enough to betray the most dangerous crime lord in the Republic of Fire and lucky enough to live to tell about it." Sasuke lifted the man by the collar of his prison suit and looked him right in the eye. "And you're going to tell us all you know."

* * *

 _Warehouse 417, Tanzaku Gai, Republic of Fire_

 _10:59 P.M._

 _5/05/17_

 _~Sakura Haruno~_

* * *

Under the cool, dim lighting of the warehouse, Sakura watched as Akaza Shibuya finalized the deal and quickly took the briefcase before handing it off to one of the elites. Akaza was a giant of a man. Standing at over 6 feet 6 inches, he was 220 pounds of muscle. _I could take him. Muscle heads like him underestimate smaller people. Don't think they can punch above their weight._ As Akaza stood up, he pulled out the Smith & Wesson 500 Magnum hidden in his sport jacket and shot the dealer in the head before ordering his men to take back the money. _Why he didn't just do that in the first place is beyond me._

The Rising Sun captains did a lot of weird things, Sakura found out. Over the past six months, Sakura had seen taken out a lot of captains. But it seemed like more and more lieutenants were being promoted than their small group could kill captains. _At this rate, we're gonna have to go straight to the source and take out the leader. If we actually knew who it is and where they are._ Akaza was one of the higher up captains in the syndicate and was one of the few who were actually a member of the first iteration of the organization. And what made him dangerous was that he was a physical specimen with intelligence.

As Akaza left the warehouse, Sakura smelled gasoline. With narrow eyes, Sakura quickly climbed out of the warehouse and began to slide down the roof. She didn't have time to stop a warehouse from burning down. It was abandoned after all, so no one would care. Just as she reached the edge, Sakura propelled herself upwards and grabbed the nearby ledge and pulled herself up. She then ran across the rooftops as silently as possible and leapt over a protruding vent parkour style. Waiting for her at the edge of the premises were Ana and Lee.

Sakura felt a slight smile creep up her face as she remembered how they managed to recruit Ana in the first place. She had woken up in the Nest and instead of screaming bloody murder, was calm enough and smart enough not to panic. That was something that Sakura could respect. When Sasuke appeared, a murderous, yet admiration and respect filled look appeared on Ana's face.

" _You made me miss. How?"_ Sasuke only smiled and told Ana was he told Sakura. " _But…Even so, I shouldn't have missed those follow up shots! Heck I even missed all of the civilians behind you. I…I never miss."_

Sasuke had strolled forward and had told Sakura to undo Ana's binds. " _Everyone misses. Your grandfather and even you. Why? Because we're only human."_ Ana turned silent. " _Listen. I have an offer for you. You have a talent that no one I know can match. Your accuracy is nearly perfect. I read your file and you said you joined the Special Forces because you wanted to eliminate the evil crime syndicates and terrorist cells that plague the world, to avenge your siblings and death_. _If you join us, you'll be able to do that. And the people who you'll work with, they're not going to be like your Special Forces unit. They're the best at what they do. Just like you. So what do you say Ana?"_

Shaking herself out of her thoughts, Sakura motioned for the three of them to get a move on. She then gave Ana the go ahead to fire a tracking dart at the lead car with Akaza in it. And Sakura had to say, it was an impressive shot considering that the only view Ana had of the lead car was a small opening between two crates. A very, very small opening. Lee whistled.

"Nice shot. Now what?" Lee asked, leaning against a crate. "I suppose we're going to tail Akaza back to his hideout, plant some bugs, maybe a camera or two, and maybe steal some information from their computers and all that stuff?" Sakura nodded, jumping down from the crates. She then began to make her way to her motorcycle.

Sitting in the lancer to her right was Deidara who was on his phone and in the back typing away on his laptop was Naruto. After rapping on the window, Naruto rolled it down.

"Yeah?"

"You got the tracking signal?" He nodded. "Okay, remember in order to keep the signal, you're gonna have to keep yourself at least 50 meters out. The signal also reaches out till 5 Km. By then the signal will have dropped. I suggest you hurry, because right now, their convoy is on the move."

Without any further instruction, and as Lee and Ana got into the car, Deidara drove off, though albeit still jumpy at the modified lancer's silent engine and the fact that it hardly made a sound as the wheels rolled across asphalt. Sakura revved up her motorcycle and began to follow the convoy. Instead of taking the avenues and roads, Sakura drove down the alleyways and side roads while following the tracker at the maximum distance with the tracker still sending signals.

" _This is Alpha team we have the package. How are things on your end Bravo team?"_ Sasuke's voice buzzed in her, and presumably everyone else's, ear.

"This is Bravo team, we are tailing Akaza. He killed the dealer though. Do we change our plans?" She asked while taking a sharp right turn. "He could have had some information on the Rising Sun."

" _It doesn't matter. Proceed as planned. I had thought that Akaza would kill the dealer. He's smarter than the other captains and he's undoubtedly going to be the hardest of the captains to take down. And remember, be careful. Akaza isn't one to underestimate. Sasuke out."_

With that Sakura rolled her neck and drifted across the pavement as she accelerated to over 200 Km/H. She blew through several red lights and stop signs, but it seemed that the police were nowhere to be found. Then Sakura remembered that most of the police were over in the city hall dealing with a terrorist group. _I think they were called the Cult of Jashin or something like that. Oh well. It doesn't matter to me._ She looked down at the GPS and noted that the signal has stopped moving. "This is Sakura, I'm moving in for a closer look. Ana get into an Overwatch position."

"Roger that."

A sigh passed through Sakura's lips. _What a pain. I'd prefer if we just took the leader out directly, but that wouldn't solve any problems. It would only create a power vacuum that every captain is going to try to fill in and cause an inter-gang war. That won't end well._ "I guess I'll play along Sasuke."

The hideout was a fairly large casino with a giant neon sun at the front. Emblazoned horizontally across the building, covering up a large portion of the casino. Akaza and the convoy parked at the back of the casino. "Tch. Any of you know the name of this casino? I can't see the sign up front."

Naruto spoke up. "Uh yeah the place is called the Blue Dragon Casino. If you want I can get you the schematics of the place and upload it to your phone, but it might take a while. The place has…decent security I guess."

"No. It'll only waste time. Start hacking into the Casino cameras and systems and find out all you can. I'm going in." Sakura replied, flipping herself over to the rooftop. To the right she spotted an entrance into the casino. It would have been easy to use that, but Sakura had a feeling it only lead into the main area. To the far left was a large vent that Sakura bet she could drop into.

However, before she could move, the door creaked open and out came one of the Rising Sun elites. This one however, if Sakura remembered correctly, was Akaza's right hand man. An ex-assassin by the name of Arisa. Just Arisa. She was the only female of the group. From observations, she could tell that Arisa wasn't like the other so called "elites". She wasn't just given a highly modified assault rifle and fancy body armour. No, Sakura could tell that Arisa was not a person to take lightly. A slight grin formed on Sakura's face. _Good. Maybe this'll be fun after all. So far every "elite" I've gone up against were absolute fools armed with gear they didn't know how to use the full potential of._

Arisa strolled over to the edge of the casino and took out a pack of cigarettes and lit one up. "This is Ana. I have a clear visual on the elite. Do I have permission to shoot? Over."

"Negative." Sakura murmured, staying still. "If there's even a slight chance that you'll miss, it'll be over for us. This one isn't like the other elites. If you miss, she'll know you're there and inform her boss immediately. I can't risk that. Stand down for now." Ana growled but nonetheless obeyed. With that out of the way, Sakura slinked off into the darkness and began to make her way to the vent as fast and as quiet as possible.

"Tch. What a pain in the ass this is." Arisa said, rolling her neck. She pulled out a small ornate kukri and began to twirl around in her hand without a care in the world. "Hopefully something exciting will happen soon. Otherwise my talents are going to be wasted in this damn fucking casino ~da ze~."

Thankfully, Arisa seemed too pissed off to notice Sakura lower herself into the vent and close the vent grate behind her silently. "This is Sakura, I am in the vent. How are things going on your end Naruto? Deidara, Lee?" She asked, crawling her way through the surprisingly spacious vent. To her right, Sakura could see a faint source of light pouring through a vent opening.

"You remember how I said that their security is pretty good? Yeah…Aparently it isn't. It's just a really weak firewall and a bunch of other really stupid shit. But whatever. I haven't found anything interesting or useful so far. At least to my knowledge. I'll notify you when I find something of interest." Naruto called out.

"Akaza has yet to move from his spot down in the bar. There isn't anyone out in the streets that look suspicious or important either. We'll notify you if something happens though. Over." Lee's voice was almost drowned out by the sounds of the casino. That and of Deidara's terrible flirting. "And I'll try to make sure that Deidara's youthful face doesn't get disfigured too much."

"Hey!" Before Deidara could say anything else, Naruto cut out his audio and Sakura sighed in relief. The last thing she need right now was Deidara's incessant talking to ruin her concentration. If she were to be discovered, not only would this mission be in jeopardy, but so would her life. There was no doubt in her mind that Arisia and Akaza would kill her no problem. _That is_ _ **if**_ _I let them._

As she neared the source of light, Sakura lifted her head up to look through the grates. She could just barely make out the face of one of Akaza's false elites with a woman whose face was flushed red. The two of them were too busy making out for them to notice the vent grate open. In fact they didn't even notice Sakura drop in.

Only when Sakura snuck up behind the pair did the woman notice her and by then it was too late. Sakura grabbed the elite's head and twisted it 90 degrees with an audible snap and before the woman could scream Sakura knocked her out too. Sakura didn't worry about the woman discovering her. She was probably too drunk to remember what happened at all so Sakura didn't think too much on it. And in case she did remember, as much as Sakura hated it, then Akaza would kill her to keep the fact that one of his Elites was killed a secret. Though it would have been much easier to just hire another of these false elites to keep up appearances.

After arranging the bodies in a way that made it appear that they had just fallen asleep, Sakura left the room quietly, but not before checking the schematics of the casino on her phone. _Satoru better finish that holographic intelligence interface that he's working on. Having to turn my phone on and off is going to pose quite a problem, not to mention quite tedious._ "Alright, this was useless. No hidden passages or rooms or anything." She would have to go right Akaza's office and search there directly. Why she couldn't just kill him right then and there was baffling and it made Sakura irate, but she knew how to restrain herself. _I could always take my anger out on Sasuke whenever we're sparring._ She had yet to lose to him once and did not intend to do so.

The hallways of the casino's innards were empty. There were cameras here and there, but not so many that Sakura would have to have Naruto hack into them. From her observations, the cameras had a visual radius of up to 5-8 sometimes 10 meters and had a range of movement that was limited to 75 degrees. From what the schematics had told her, the casino manager AKA Akaza's office was on the top floor at the very end of the first hallway to her right coming up the stairs.

Sakura had yet to see any other elites aside from Arisia and the one she had killed. But she did not doubt that they were indeed here and while Sakura could easily take them out, she would rather not have them announce her presence in the casino with assault rifle fire. Though there was a chance that she could eliminate them silently before they could even think about firing upon her.

And soon enough, two more elites showed up at the end of the first hallway to her left. Both of them were looking out the window. One of them had a hand on the stock of his rifle, and the other had a pack of cigarettes in hand. _Tch. Amateurs._ As she rolled across the hallway, Sakura quickly drew her supressed M9 and shot the two elites in the back of the head. Then out of the corner of her eye, Sakura spotted a lone elite round the corner. Before he could even react, Sakura flung a pair of razor sharp shuriken, with poisoned tips. They tore through his neck, one slicing the carotid artery and the other lodging itself into the elite's vocal chords.

She didn't have the time to hide their bodies, and such continued upon her merry way, turning right around and going right, or in this case left towards the manager's office. At the end of the hallway was a window where she saw the unmistakeable tiny glint of a sniper scope. _Huh. I didn't realize Ana had a good view of them._ And sure enough, the ace sniper was grumbling about kill stealing. With her back against the wall, Sakura made her way to the door. "Ana you have a clear visual of the door?"

Seconds later, a small red dot appeared at the center of the door. "Affirmative. Waiting on your order."

After taking a deep breath, Sakura opened the door, surprised to find it unlocked. _Why didn't I check to see if it was locked or not in the first place?_ She was getting sloppy. Perhaps she should've brought someone along with her. To which she immediately shook her head. None of the others, aside maybe from Ana, could have snuck into the casino like she did.

Waiting in the room, sitting against the windowsill across from her, was Akaza. His sport coat was laid out across the desk just a few feet away in the center of the room, and in his hand, was a massive Smith & Wesson 500 magnum. The giant mob boss was idly shining his already spotless magnum, pretending that he didn't see Sakura sneak into the room. _What the hell!? He's supposed to be down in the bar! Unless…_ A double.

"Sakura I can take him out right now. Just give me the order." The red dot from Ana's laser sight moved across the dark room and settled on Akaza's forehead. Despite this, he didn't move at all.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Akaza's voice was deep and menacing. Fitting for someone of his size and stature. Still, he had yet to look up from his task of cleaning his magnum. "I'm certain you saw my right hand Arisa up top right?" Sakura narrowed her eyes. _Damnit! I should've been more careful._ A green laser cut through the black of the night and stopped at the center of the sniper glint. "Now, you must think I'm really dumb don't you?"

Akaza slipped on a vertical shoulder holster and slipped the giant hand cannon inside. He stood up and donned his sport coat before sitting down in the swivel chair and planting his feet on top of the desk. "You I think I didn't see you? Listen, most of the other captains, they're not taking this threat seriously. They should be. Already, 10 captains and their entire crews have been eliminated. Yet the others keep insisting that it won't happen to them." He scoffed. "Wrong. I know who you are Sakura Haruno. The Pink Flower of Death. One of the deadliest assassins ANBU has ever produced." An impish grin formed on Akaza's face as he drew a Sig P226 from a hidden compartment and aimed it at Sakura. At the same time, Sakura smoothly took out her own M9 and leveled it at Akaza's exposed forehead.

"Again, I wouldn't do that if I were you. Right now, I have at least 40 guys down in the casino floor, all surrounding your two men. All armed to the teeth. And they don't care about collateral damage. And Arisa? She doesn't miss. And even if she does, that M110 semi-auto sniper rifle of hers will make that she doesn't miss a second time." _He doesn't know about Naruto._ A small smirk appeared on Sakura's face. "Now put the gun down."

Sakura rolled her neck, put her hands up and slowly loosened her grip on the handgun. Akaza's aim didn't once falter as the M9 dropped to the ground with a thud. "What you do want?"

"I want you to leave." _What?_ "You can't win this fight Sakura. You've been outmaneuvered, overmatched. You can't beat me. But I'm a merciful man. I'll let you leave unscathed, if only for the chance that you'll be able to amuse me."

Whilst Akaza was talking, Sakura was crashing her teeth together in certain intervals, hoping that the device that Satoru had implanted into them would work and send her message to Naruto. _We've been caught. Get out their systems now, but before you do, cut the power. I still need to make a getaway._ "That's it? You're letting us go because it amuses you? That's a mistake you're going to regret Butcher of Tanzaku."

The Rising Sun captain chuckled and fired a shot, intentionally missing to the side of Sakura's head. "Currently, you aren't in a position to be making statements like that. One shot to the head and you're finished."

"I don't know, people _have_ survived shots to the head before. So why can't I? I survived an encounter with Itachi Uchiha. You think that this intimidates me? If so, then you're wrong." If anything Akaza only laughed harder.

"Yes, yes. The mighty Itachi Uchiha. The agent-killer. Absolutely unstoppable, unbeatable, a one man army. I've heard all these things said about him, and frankly, even if any of them were true," He leaned forward and stage-whispered. "I don't give a flying fuck." Sakura merely smiled. _Now Naruto._

And everything went black. Sakura reached up and disarmed Akaza and knocked him out with a quick and powerful uppercut to the jaw. Outside, the sound of Ana's M82A1 firing round after round filled the air, as well as the distinct sound of an M110 sniper rifle. Even from upstairs, Sakura could hear the sound of fighting coming from the casino floor, accompanied by a couple of small explosions that rocked the casino. _So much for not attracting attention._

Several elites attempted to get in her way only to end up lying on the floor in a pool of their own blood. Quickly sliding down the railing of the stairs and shooting anyone that got in her way, Sakura arrived in the first floor in no time flat. Waiting for her, in the center of a sea of blood, was Rock Lee, cleaning his bloody fists with a rag from the bar.

He raised an eyebrow at her. "What took you so long? I sent Deidara back to the car to pick us up."

"Never mind that. We need to go now. I'm certain that the Rising Sun have already sent reinforcements to eliminate us and we don't have the time or the logistics to take care of that. This was supposed to be a recon mission. But I guess nothing ever goes as planned." Someone was coming down the stairs, if the sound of frantic footsteps was any indication. "Hurry!" Sakura sprinted towards the exit as Arisa jumped from the top of the stairs and onto the next set, a G36C in hand. But Sakura and Rock Lee were already gone.

"Fuck. Akaza's gonna kill me ~Da ze~!"

* * *

 _The Nest, Konoha_

 _2:04 A.M._

 _5/05/17_

 _~Satoru Uchiha~_

* * *

While Satoru would have preferred to sleep, he had work to do. And that was to make sure that their new friend didn't escape. And that meant chipping him with a tiny tracker in a place that no sensible person would ever think to look. His crotch. Just above the penis. _Thank god this guy has no hair. Oh that would have been a nightmare._ He also attached a pair of non-restrictive handcuffs made of a lightweight polymer based material. It took Satoru some time to come up with the design of it, but not even Shino could get out. Not without effort that is. And just to be safe, Satoru placed a thin contact lens embedded with an even smaller tracker chip over the right eye. And after that was done, he had to go and sort and refill and clean and inspect all of the gear that was brought along.

"…Alright and that should do it." Satoru muttered, placing the tracking device on a rack amongst other devices. Afterwards, Satoru made his way to the control room. Sitting in her seat, Kurama had her earbuds plugged in and was listening to some music as she took a short nap. The others were cleaning themselves and would probably arrive soon. The redheaded hacker had been up since 3 in the morning. She may have said that hacking into the Blood Prison was easy, but clearly it was not. It was the most advanced prison on this side of the continent for a reason. And Kurama had spent nearly 5 hours getting in. All without break. Naruto had offered to help her, but he had to leave early to get some supplies for Satoru's invention and to go to some café he was going to be working at for training or something like that. And no doubt hacking into the Blood Prison would probably have taken less time with both pieces of the Fox hacking.

Sighing, Satoru brought up the HVT's file on the smart table that he called the ASU or Advanced Support Unit. The ASU was a 3 meter wide by 6 meter long table made of a smooth polymer material with an 8K resolution monitor built into it. The table had access to the databases of every intelligence agency in the world thanks to Kurama and Naruto, as well as access to almost all of the satellites up in space except for the recently launched one. Some other features that the ASU held included facial and voice analysis, code decryption and holographic projection. Though that was only a prototype that Satoru wasn't actually sure would work, But regardless, he had been working on it for over half of his life and to see it actually work, albeit with some problems, was the biggest achievement he'd had in his life yet. At least until he had a chance to start working on that _other_ project of his.

According to the file he had brought up, the man that Sasuke had brought back to the nest was a Black market Information broker by the name of Mizuki Asashiro. A former police lieutenant who was caught selling information to various crime organizations in exchange for money and women among other things. After he was caught, Mizuki continued his work as an Information Broker. And he was one of the most sought after information brokers too to boot. That was until he gave the leader of the Rising Sun false information that lead to arrest of over 100 members of the Rising Sun as well as the identities of all 50 captains. Suffice to say, that this was worst mistake that Mizuki would ever make. One that Satoru simply couldn't understand.

Even if this wasn't the most powerful Crime Lord in the Republic and one of the most powerful in the world, Mizuki's days as an information broker would have been over. No one would want to hire someone that was known to feed false information. It didn't make sense unless Mizuki himself didn't know the information he had was false. Information brokers had to get their intelligence somewhere. And believeing everything you hear in the underground world of crime is like believing everything you see on the internet. And now that Satoru took a look at the information that he had given the Rising Sun, he noticed that there were a lot of contradictory information within. Something an experienced info broker would have noticed. But that brought up the question. Mizuki was a veteran information broker and according to his files, was good at analysis. So for someone like that to miss such easy problems with the info he was given? It didn't make sense.

The sound of the door opening brought Satoru out of his reverie. Out of the door came Naruto dressed in a white shirt with a nine tailed fox design on the front and khaki shorts. He stretched and yawned as he sat down in his chair and wheeled it over to the ASU. The blonde's eyes were bloodshot and he looked ready to fall over asleep. Satoru chuckled. "Why don't you take a nap? The others are busy getting changed and cleaning up, so you have at least 20 minutes."

"Nah, I'm fine. It's just…Oh really tired. Well, how long is this meeting gonna take anyway? It probably won't take longer than 5 minutes right? I mean Sasuke, Sakura and Shino and you are always right to the point. And besides, I've gone an entire week with only 2 hours of sleep spread out over 7 days. I think I can handle this."

Satoru shrugged. "If you say so. But…Just close your eyes for like 5 minutes or something. It's not like you're going to be missing much. And besides, don't you have work tomorrow? Isn't it like your first day at that café downtown?"

Naruto nodded weakly before wheeling back over to his station and pulling a video. And soon enough Naruto began nodding off and by the time Sasuke and the others arrive, Naruto was slumped over at his desk, listening to some tunes just like his sister. Afterwards Sasuke and the others arrived. It was only a debriefing of what happened during the mission, so to be honest, Satoru wasn't really paying any attention to what happened. _It's a good thing I'm recording all of this on the ASU._ That was how most nights ended. Satoru either too tired or too bored to care to listen, so instead he often just recorded the conversations and studied them the morning after when everyone else was still asleep.

The next evening, after listening to the recording three times and spending the entire day working on perfecting the ASU's holographic projection, Satoru donned a simple black shirt with the words _MADE IN KONOHA_ and _BORN FROM FIRE_ in a stylized design and a pair of black jeans. He also slipped on a red zip up hoodie with a holster sewn on the inside. After holstering a Glock 18 select fire pistol, Satoru got on the bus to the Kasai Ward. Even though it was rather late at night, the Kasai Ward was still teeming with teenagers, tourists, young couples and the occasional business man. The Kasai Ward was home to the busiest metropolitan station in the world. Every day at least 2.5 million people passed through the complex maze that was the Konoha metro system as well as the 5 tallest skyscrapers in the city. Surrounding the Kasai Metro Station on every side were department stores, electronic stores and the occasional outlet mall. And in within this beautiful mess was the small café called the Green Basilisk. This was where Naruto was hired.

Satoru didn't really know why Naruto got a job. It wasn't like he needed the money or the work experience. And it wasn't like Naruto was even good at…whatever people who work at café's do. He was a hacker with barely any social skills, but had the charisma and the friendliness to become someone with social skills. He was a gamer, and one of the best as well and he was a regular streamer that made decent cash.

And then Satoru walked into the café.

Naruto had said it was small, but clearly he was lying. Despite it being late at night, the café was already at full capacity and the line was actually pretty long. Almost all the way to the door. If Satoru's observation skills were any good, then there at least 30 tables within the café and all but 3 of them were full. There were also some tables outside as well. Those would be filling up soon. Walking all around the café were men and women in maid and butler outfits. The moment Satoru saw this, a menacing smile formed on his face. _Oh I'm never gonna let him live this down._ Satoru felt his hand move closer and closer towards his phone, ready to take a picture of Naruto the moment that he appeared.

Out of the corner of his eye, Satoru saw a group of 4 people, probably two couples get up from their seat. Satoru made his way through the sea of people and sat down at the now empty table. As Satoru sat back and observed, he noticed that more and more people were beginning to leave and after half an hour, most of the place was empty. As it turns out, most of the people in line had left the moment they got their drink.

"Sir, the café will be closing in half an hour." One of the maids called out to him. She was pretty. Like, really pretty. Comparing the other maids to this one in specific would have been like comparing a stereotypical female nerd to a stereotypical cheerleader. Not even comparable. Her outfit also screamed that she different from the other maids. Instead of a black and red maid outfit with a skirt slightly just above the knee, she had a black, white and pink maid outfit with a skirt that stopped halfway down the thigh. A white rose stood proudly on her chest as she swept her long auburn hair behind her ear. "Just thought you should know." _If only she had a nametag of some sort._

Then, rounding the corner, was Naruto. And Satoru had to admit, he looked pretty dapper for someone whose wardrobe consisted of video game and anime graphic tees and three pairs of black jeans that looked the exact same. Naruto's butler uniform consisted of a pink button up shirt with white rose decals and a high cut vest with black slacks and a pink bowtie. The blonde hacker's face flushed red the moment he turned the corner right into a barrage of pictures from Satoru. His co-worker snickered and it was at that moment that Satoru realized that, she and Naruto were the only maids and butlers left in the café. _Huh, it seems they left while I was busy ogling Naruto's co-worker._

"Is he your friend Naruto?" The maid asked, wiping a nearby table clean. Naruto sighed and nodded. She chuckled and moved over to another table. Some of the remaining customers laughed about something stupid and again the café seemed pretty lively.

Sliding into the seat across from Satoru, Naruto rolled his neck and glared at him. "What are you doing? Aren't you supposed to be back in the Nest helping Kurama decrypt that computer chip that Sakura found in Anzaku Gai?"

"Not really. She finished decrypting it before lunch and I was working out the kinks of the ASU's holographic projection system for most of the day. Bat anyways…" Naruto groaned as a wolfish grin appeared on Satoru's face. "…I knew you were going to work at a café, but I didn't realize that it was a maid café."

"Ugh. Don't even start. You came on a good day. Most of the time when I come here, all of the maids usually are neko-maids. Cat maids. With cat ear headbands. And stop smiling like that." Naruto scowled and folded his arms. "Look, I got a job here because it's relatively close to the Anime Globe center. You do know what that is right?" Satoru shook his head. "The Anime Globe center is the largest anime and manga merchandise store in the Konoha and one of the largest in the world. Plus the KHA24 have their theatre and their own café relatively close by."

Satoru raised an eyebrow, a smile on his face. "Uh huh. And what's the real or rather main reason you decided to work here? And don't say because the coffee is good here. Everyone knows that the Griffin and Phoenix café just a few stores down has the best coffee in the Ward. Is it because of the girls? They're pretty, and those maid outfits really show of their legs." Naruto groaned and Satoru laughed.

"Ugh…Fine, yes I got this job because of the girls. That and sometimes KHA24 sends some of their own girls to perform. And plus Sasuke said to get a job close to the Rising Sun hideout in the Kasai Ward so this was the perfect place." Satoru chuckled. "You know something Satoru? You came right on time. I was just about to go home." He then turned over to lone maid cleaning up the tables. "Hikari! I'm going now!"

 _So that's her name._

"Alright! But remember, try to come on time tomorrow. I don't you to get fired on your second day of work. And unless the traffic is horrendous, you should be on time." Satoru chuckled as Naruto shot Hikari a dark look, with Hikari herself laughing lightly.

"Whatever." Naruto muttered. "Come on Satoru." He shrugged on his blazer and stood outside while Satoru payed for his latte. Naruto was waiting at the nearby manga store when Satoru left. "Now can you tell me why _you're_ here? I thought you said that you'd rather kill yourself than go anywhere in Konoha." The hacker asked, flipping through a volume of MPD Psycho.

"I don't remember saying that once." Satoru replied, shoving a hand into a pocket and pulling out a volume of Gantz from the shelf. Naruto snorted, and pulled out several more volumes of MPD Psycho "And since when did you start reading that? You haven't even finished the second season of Bloody Monday."

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "Really? If I remember correctly, the moment we met, you said something along the lines of, _there's only 3 things you need to know about me. My name is Satoru, I like technology, and I hate Konoha and I'd rather chug bleach than go anywhere in this shitty ass excuse for a city._ I'm sure you said some more cursing, but it was something like that."

"Alright now I know you're making shit up. I said the first two things, but I did not say that I'd rather chug bleach." The Uchiha replied, as the two of them strode over to the cash register. "I don't _hate_ Konoha. I just don't _like_ it. There's a difference. What that difference is, I don't know. And I don't care either." Naruto shrugged and slung his shopping bag over his shoulder. "And you still haven't answered my question about Bloody Monday."

"That? I just couldn't stand how unrealistic the hacking was and even though the art was really good, and the story really good, as are the characters, I just couldn't stand it. As a wizard-class hacker myself, it's an affront to me and my sister. I could get past how unrealistic it was during the first season but…ugh! Maybe I'll go back and finish it, if only for the story and the characters."

Satoru snickered. "Well, I guess so. Onto other, more recent things." His blonde friend groaned as the duo began going down the wide steps into Kasai Station. "How was your day? And who was that girl? She looked like she was around our age and yet she seemed like she was the boss."

"Hikari? Yeah she's the boss alright. The boss of me. We're the youngest ones at the café and she's probably the most talented one there. She doesn't shuffle across the floor from table to table, she glides. And she hardly ever drops anything. And even though she's only been working there since the year started, she's already the chief maid. And to answer your question, the day was…tedious. You wouldn't believe how many girls were asking for _me_ specifically. Ugh…You know how on the internet it's always said that working in stores and restaurants are the worst because of the customers? Well it's true."

Just as they were about to get onto the metro, Satoru felt something in his pants vibrate. Quickly fishing out his phone, Satoru answered the call from Sasuke and motioned for Naruto to stop. "Hello? What's up? Something wrong? Naruto and I were just about to go back to the Nest."

" _Listen, according to the chip that Kurama decrypted, there should be a Rising Sun safe house nearby. I want you and Naruto to see if you can find some information from it. And also, we intercepted one of the Rising Sun's transmissions and there was something about a shipment arriving soon. See if you can find any information on that. Report back if you find anything interesting."_ Sasuke said over the sound of a car accelerating.

"Okay, and you sound like you're going somewhere. Mind filling me in? It sounds important." Satoru asked as he and Naruto began to make their way back up to street level. "And don't you guys need me to oversee the mission? I mean, I taught Kurama the basics on how to use the ASU, but I'd be more comfortable if it was me doing it."

" _No it's fine. We're going to be meeting with Sakura's contact within the Rising Sun. There isn't a need for worry. Now hurry, I have feeling that shipment is holding something important._ " Sasuke replied. " _Sasuke out."_

With a sigh, Satoru turned to Naruto. "Well…What do you say we go on an adventure?" Naruto groaned and smacked his forehead. "Exactly.


	4. Episode 4

_Near the KHA24 Café & Theatre, Kasai Ward, Konoha _

_8:45. P.M._

 _06/05/16_

 _~Naruto Uzumaki~_

* * *

Today was supposed to be one of his days off. And even if it meant working in a public place where hundreds of people would demand his services, Naruto found it a nice change of scenery from the usual triple monitor setup full of windows with code. Even if he did feel that Hikari was expecting a little too much out of him, but at least he got through the day without getting in trouble with his boss. Though calling someone around his age his boss was just a little weird. Okay, not just a little weird, very weird.

As Satoru lead Naruto the most popular café in the city, he explained what had just happened. Naruto sighed. "Okay, so let me get this straight, that chip that Sakura found has some data that says there's another hideout hidden in this ward? What about the one near the Kasai Ward Anime and Manga Museum? What's so important about this one?"

"I don't know, but any new information we find is going to help aid us in eliminating the Rising Sun. And I think this looks promising." At his confused look, Satoru explained. "During the first iteration of the Rising Sun, the Kasai Ward was part of their turf and was actually an important hub for weapons, drugs, other narcotics and the occasional human trafficking due to the presence of the second largest harbor in the city. If there was anything left from that time, there's a slim chance that it might still be here."

"Okay, I can see that. But it might take a while to find this shipment." Naruto said as he and Satoru sat down on a bench in a park nearby. The hacker zipped open his messenger bag and took out his built from scratch laptop, with a 4K HD resolution monitor with the highest end components available on market, plus a few prototype ones built made by Satoru, It wasn't nearly as fast or as secure as his setup back in the Nest but that was to be expected and it did the job. "Kasai harbor, as you've said already is the second largest in the city. Every day there at least a hundred thousand shipments arriving, and the place is massive. Bigger than the Senju and Uchiha Parks combined. It's an absolute maze and you're telling me have to find one specific container?"

"Can you do it though?" In response Naruto snorted. "Is that a yes or a no? I require a verbal reply to my question." Satoru proclaimed as he pulled out some sort of device and pointed it at the ground. _A handheld ground penetrating radar device? Is there anything that Satoru can't make? What's next, a fully functioning Helicarrier or some other bullshit like that?_

"Are you kidding me? Of course I can. It'll only take some time. But you said _a_ shipment. That could mean a huge number of things. If we're going to find this container, we're gonna have to do some batman shit." Naruto shot Satoru a look. "You ever think about making Batman's detective vision? It would come in super fucking handy you know that right?"

"I have been working on that. It's just…really fucking difficult. And I still have to finish developing that semi-transparent holographic HUD. But anyways, we should try and find this hideout. I think I've got a lead on it." Naruto nodded and stood up, before pushing up his sleeves revealing an arm computer. "Hey, remember that thing's still a prototype. Don't expect it do what your computer, or even your laptop can do."

"Yeah I know, but since this is a prototype, consider this mission the test run." Naruto replied swinging the bag over his shoulder after stuffing the laptop back in it. "Okay and just to clarify, Sasuke said that the shipment was _about to_ arrive?" Satoru nodded. "Okay, that makes things way, way easier. According to the today's schedule, there should be about 4 cargo ships coming into the harbour at this time, all within the span of an hour. The container we're looking for could be in any of them. But that narrows it down a lot."

"How long do you think it'll take you to find it?"

Naruto smirked. "Oh, I've already found it." He showed Satoru the arm computer screen. "The shipment is arriving in around 15 minutes in green container with 0162 on the side and a Iwagakure Shipping logo the top. It was actually quite easy to find it. Of the four shipments that should be arriving soon only one of them had a connection to the Rising Sun. The captain of the ship is a man by the name of Hoshou Keiji. He used to be a smuggler for the Rising Sun. So it was only obvious. Finding the specific container however, was a little bit harder and even now I'm not even sure if 0162 is the right one actually. So we might have to actually have to search every container from that ship and scan the inside so we can actually see what's inside."

"You know you could just check the shipping manifest and look for anything that looks suspicious. Either way, it'll take some time to find. Maybe there's something in this secret hideout that can help us." Satoru replied turning the corner into an alley. "According to the Konoha Satellite's GPR and when I cross reference the data from maps of the Kasai Ward from years previous and satellite images, I've manage to narrow down the hideout to three possible locations. The old Konoha Electrical power station just down the street. The old Konoha Anime Convention Center a couple blocks away, but it is closer to the harbor. It's a 20 minute drive I think if you take the longest route. The final possible location is an abandoned section of railway near the edge of the ward. It's the farthest away from the harbor, but it's also the most secluded and can easily be defended from raids because there's only two entrances. Which do you think we should go to?" Satoru paused by Naruto and pulled up his own wrist computer and used the very primitive holographic technology he had to show Naruto his findings.

"I think we should check out the power station first. It's the closest and it's the easiest to get into." Naruto replied as he pulled out his keys. "Gotta show you my driving skills bro." Satoru scoffed. "I can drive!"

"I didn't say you couldn't. Just saying that I should probably drive. I mean, I got my license on the first try and you took like 4 tries." With a grumble, Naruto called for his car. A metallic blue Jaguar XF with a red fox emblazoned on the hood. It rolled up on the street across from them and after waiting for the light to turn green Naruto slid into the driver's seat. "Are you sure that you don't want me to drive?"

"I can handle driving down the street. I mean, I can see the power station right now!" Naruto responded as he shifted into gear and roared down the boulevard. "See!? It didn't even take a minute!"

Satoru raised an eyebrow. "Seriously? We could have walked our way to the power station then! We could have walked the way there!" He said, closing the door behind him. "Whatever, let's get this over with. Who knows, we might even get lucky and this'll be the hidden hideout that we're looking for. Chances are though, that that's bullshit." He stood in front of the gate and rolled his neck before moving towards the rusted Iron Gate. "Well don't just stand there moron. Come on!"

"Fine." Naruto sighed and stood against the wall and boosted Satoru up on top of the wall. Once he was on top Naruto reached up and grabbed Satoru's hand and pulled himself up the wall. The power station was old and crumbling. Several substations looked ready to blow at any moment and the door into the station itself crumbled when Naruto went to open it. The inside of the building was dilapidated and without power. There was no way Naruto would be able to connect to the system here.

Sighing, Satoru moved into the generating room. As he entered the door he looked back to Naruto. "If their hideout is here, then it's probably going to place where there's a lot of power nearby. But consider how run down this place is, the hideout would have collapsed a long time ago."

"Unless the hideout is farther underneath the main area where no one will expect it. But if they put it that far down I doubt they'd be getting a good signal." Naruto said as he ran his hand along the dusty ground. Rolling his sleeve up, Naruto attempted to find a system to hack into, aside from the mainframe of the old power station. "Nothing. Your radar picking anything up?"

"Nothing. If there was anything here my radar would have picked it up. The hideout would have to be at least 2 Km down for the radar not to see it. So unless the Rising Sun have been digging for gold, I doubt we'd find anything here. Something that I already suspected." Satoru replied putting his radar back into his utility belt. "Come on."

"Already on it. Now if I remember correctly, the old Convention Center is on Yumeko Street. I take a right on Ame Avenue and then take a right, or left?" Naruto asked he slid into the driver's seat. "Or is that the longer way? Because Ame Avenue is usually a traffic nightmare at this time of night."

Satoru nodded. "Yeah, you go down Ame Avenue and then if you want the longest, but most direct route you take a right, but if you want the shorter but less direct route you take the left." He replied. "It's up to you bro. But personally I'd take the longer route because it leads right to the parking lot and taking the left would mean we'd have to make our way through the construction site of the new addition that they're adding to the Kasai Anime and Manga Goods Shopping center. Again, it's your call."

In the end Naruto chose to take the shorter route. He wanted to get this over with as fast as possible. The Anime and Manga Goods Shopping center was one of the many malls and retail centers in the ward that stayed up late. There was even some talk about making it open for 24 hours, 7 days a week. And as much as Naruto wanted to just stay and browse, he had a job to do. Not too far off in the distance was the Old Anime Convention center. A new convention center was being rebuilt closer to the center of the ward because the old one had been found to be less than stellar to say the least. Naruto didn't know what they were putting in place of the old Convention Center, but he did know that the CEO of some bigshot company was planning on building a showroom somewhere in the city. Where better than the center of Anime and Manga culture?

After making their way through to the front entrance, Naruto realized that there was a tiny problem. "How are we going to get in? This place doesn't have any internet going through it anymore so I doubt I can hack into it to get it open."

Raising an eyebrow Satoru reached into his utility belt and pulled it a small disc shaped device with two glowing neon blue grooves etched into it. "Don't worry about it. I have a device for everything man. I call this little beauty here the safecracker. But it can do more than just open safes. It can open locked doors as well. But it's untested on doors. I think, if it doesn't work the first time, I can just probably tinker with it and change how it works. But first…let's see." The inventor placed the device in the center if the door and left it there to do its job." The safecracker made several whirring sounds and the neon blue veins glowed even brighter for just a second before it detached itself from the door and into Satoru's hand. The door slowly slid open. Satoru stood off to the side and gestured for Naruto to go first. "Ladies first."

"Haha. Very funny. Now let's go. You getting anything?" Naruto began to make his way to the security room and followed the signs. Behind him Satoru strode behind slowly, his radar up to eyelevel.

"Not yet, but I am getting something. It could just be nothing. But why are we going to the security room? It's not like the cameras are going to be working bro."

"They might not, but I can still use my connect them to my laptop and control the cameras from there. Might be able to find something through that. Maybe I can connect my laptop to the old system too. That would probably help. How are things on your end?"

"There's something here but my radar's getting jammed. But I suppose that that's a good thing right?" Satoru asked. "But we need to hurry. For all we know the Rising Sun could have already gone and picked up the shipment."

"I wouldn't worry about that. All of the shipping containers in that dock have a tracking chip put into them by the shipping company, so unless the Rising Sun have the foresight to remove the chip, I'll be able to find them and intercept them. Though I don't suppose you can send a message to Sasuke and ask them to send some backup."

"Already did. Their meeting should have ended some time ago I think. He sent me a text during the drive here. He's sending Tenten over to help us." Naruto raised an eyebrow and Satoru sighed. "Yeah. Just Tenten. But I guess that she's more than enough help."

"I suppose, but couldn't he have gotten us more help? Hah. Whatever. Anyways, I've managed to connect to the cameras. Looking for anything unusual…Hmm…There's a room at the far end of the west wing of the convention center that looks a little suspicious, and the camera just went out. Something's jamming my signal. And that's a good thing." Naruto snapped his laptop closed and held it under his arm as the two of them made their way to the room on the complete other side of the building.

The room in question was an old maintenance room. Just like the power station, it was dark and dilapidated and very dusty. But aside from that, there wasn't anything that screamed suspicious to Naruto. Rolling back his sleeve and turning on the arm computer, Naruto raised it up and tried to find the source of the jamming. It was coming from underneath.

Beside him, Satoru had put on a pair of special goggles that allowed him to see magnetic objects or objects the emitted an electronic signal and was running his hand along the dusty walls. "I think I found something bro." He called out as his hand stopped along a patch of wall. "This patch of wall is bulging. It could be nothing, but it's better than nothing I guess. So here goes…" After a few more seconds of feeling up the wall Satoru stepped back and reached into his utility belt and pulled out a small metal ring and placed it on the bulge. Seconds later the sound of an electronic device blowing up filled the room.

Moments afterward, a door on the opposite side of the room slowly opened up to reveal a dark tunnel. The two friends shot looks at each other and Naruto stood up. "Well, I guess that solves the problem."

And into the abyss they went.

* * *

 _Anime and Manga Goods Shopping Center, Kasai Ward, Konoha_

 _9:01 P.M._

 _06/05/16_

 _~Sakuya "Tenten" Suzuki~_

* * *

"You know Sasuke, if I didn't know any better, I would've have thought that you sent me to help Naruto and Satoru only to get me out of your hair." Tenten said into her phone as she stood in the lobby of the Shopping Center. "Anyways, are you sure that Sakura's contact can be trusted? She was the leader of the Rising Sun's Kirigakure chapter after all."

" _Yes, Tenten, she can. Mei Terumi, despite her affiliation with the Rising Sun is not a criminal. Unless you call starting a rebellion against a tyrant a crime. But her information can be trusted. But on the off chance that it isn't, I'm having Kurama check the ASE databases just to check."_

"And you guys are heading to Sekai Industries right? That's who Mei-san said were affiliated with the Rising Sun? You realize that Sekai Industries in the Republic's leading producer of technology right? As well as one of the world's largest automobile manufacturers right? It doesn't make sense that they would have any ties to the Rising Sun."

" _Yes, I know. Which is why Sakura and I are going to be checking it out. Sekai Tower has some pretty good security, but nothing that we can't handle. Anyways, don't write this new info off. Sekai Industries is known to have had shady business dealings with Criminal Organizations like Akatsuki in the past, and even if they say they've turned a new leaf, I can't trust the word of a company that's helped fund a terrorist organization. Moving on, the shipment that the Rising Sun are looking for should have arrived by now. Do you have any idea what it looks like?"_

"Yeah, yeah. Got a text from your brother. The shipment we're looking for should be in a green container with 0162 on the side and an Iwagakure shipping Logo on the top or something. I'll update you on its status. I'll see you in a few." Slipping her phone into her back pocket, Tenten left the shopping center and pulled out a diamond shaped key chain and clicked on it a couple of times.

When Tenten's pink Lamborghini rolled up on the street, she tried, and failed to stifle her laughter as everyone stared, mouths agape and phones out. No doubt tweeting and snapping this to their friends. It was the same reaction that Sasuke and Satoru had when she told them what ride she wanted. Tenten was still a little peeved that Satoru had gotten a white Lambo and simply just painted it pink. It just wasn't the same as being naturally pink.

Thankfully the traffic past the center of the ward wasn't as bad and it didn't actually take that long to reach the Kasai Harbour. After parking a block outside the harbour, Tenten, opened the trunk and took out the gear she would be needing. If she were still in the ANBU, getting the right gear for this mission meant having to go back to HQ. Now with all the fancy new technology that Satoru came up with, it was just a matter of pressing things on a tablet and getting all the gear you need.

"Hmm…What am going to need here…Oh right, the electronic copy of the shipping manifest, and maybe this map of the harbour…?" Tenten simply added the files to her wrist computer with a simple press of a button. _Everything is so simple. I love it!_ "Special goggles. Are these the ones with X-ray vision as well? Or is this the one that has magnetic vision?" After looking at the labels, she remembered that she could just press the PDA against the device and it would tell her what it did.

 _SPECIALIZED GOGGLES: Goggles equipped with infrared, night, magnetic, x-ray and sonar vision._

"Yep, gonna take that one." She also grabbed one of those lockpicking devices that Satoru called the safecracker and stuffed into her utility belt. "Now what else…EMP's would be useful in case I have to take down some cameras. Ooh, what about some sticky cams? Could be useful. I probably shouldn't take so many though. Maybe only two or three. Probably won't need it, but I'll be taking some smoke pellets. And…I think that should be it."

After grabbing all the nonlethal gear that she would be needing Tenten grabbed her MP7 and a couple of extended mags. It was a modified MP7. With a higher rate of fire and firing a larger caliber of bullet at the cost of a decreased muzzle velocity. The muzzle was also replaced by a built in suppressor, which decreased the muzzle velocity even more. Even so, it wasn't like Tenten was going to be using the MP7 at long range so there would be no need to lead her shots. But just in case she had to take someone down at range, Tenten brought her FN Five-Seven along with her. It wasn't an assault rifle or sniper rifle by any means, but in the hands of Tenten, it might as well have been.

Clipping the utility belt on, Tenten climbed over the fence and began to look for the shipment. "How hard could be it? I mean, all I have to do is look for a specific green container among an ocean of other containers, with some being green probably." Tenten went silent when the sound of several cars pulling up and parking reached her ears. Far off in the harbour's actual parking space, Tenten spotted at least 4 black SUV's. "Huh. How generic can they get?" A devious smile formed on Tenten's face. Perhaps, she didn't have to search for the package herself.

Slowly creeping up on them, she stopped just outside of their field of vision and pressed her body against a container. There were at least 20 guys. Probably more. They were led by the woman that Sakura called Arisa. Akaza's right hand, if she remembered correctly. Tenten felt her eyes narrow at the site of the ex-assassin. Arisa wore a black flak jacket underneath a deep purple zip up hoodie. She had on black tactical boots, and slung to her side was a supressed MP5. From what Tenten could see, Arisa also had a Beretta M9 in her tactical holster. Most of her men were armed with handguns. Glock 17's mostly from what Tenten could see.

"Alright, get going, you know what to look for. Green Iwagakure Shipping container with 0162 on the side. It should be in the far left side of the harbour. Hurry up! Akaza wants this thing badly." Arisa barked, zipping up her jacket and turning off the safety on her MP5.

With confirmation of the shipment's description confirmed, and the location narrowed down, Tenten quickly and quietly began to make her way to far left side of the harbour. Out of the corner of her eye, she spied several of the Rising Sun men round the corner. As they turned the corner and before any of them could even react, Tenten quickly drew her Five-Seven and quickly dealt with them before they could mess the whole operation up.

"Seems we got an interloper here boys! You see anyone suspicious, you shoot them! No questions asked!" _Damn! She must've heard the gunfire._ Even though her handgun was supressed, that didn't mean that it was completely silent. Supressed meant that the sound of the gun firing was greatly reduced and the flash that came with eliminated. But that didn't mean that there wasn't a sound. And it was a distinct one. A sound that a former assassin like Arisa had no doubt heard many times before.

Holstering her Five-Seven and pulling the MP7 ready to fire, Tenten slowed down her pace. Ahead of her, she could see at least 3 men. They didn't notice her. As she got closer, one of them must've noticed Tenten out of their peripheral vision.

"Shit! We got company!" Silently cursing to herself, Tenten dove behind cover. To her right, two Rising Sun thugs came running towards her. Before they could get to cover, she gunned them down. All the while taking fire from the other three. "Keep firing, we got this bitch! She won't be able to go anywhere!"

Tenten let a smirk on her face. Rolling out into the open, she quickly shot all three men in the head twice. Farther back, three more men showed up. They hid under cover as Tenten began to supress them. _If only this was a UMP or MP5 then I could probably pick those guys off from this distance._ Strafing while firing was never a good idea, because your accuracy is really just going to be bad. Unless you aren't really planning to hit anything and just want to scare the crap out of people.

Quickly running into the maze of containers, Tenten spotted a green container, just ahead. _Is that? Nope. Just another green container._ Most of the shipping containers in the East port were green and from Iwagakure Shipping. It was a way to make their deliveries stand out from the rest. As she was running down the containers, Tenten noted how they were all in numerical order, which really made things much easier.

Just as she got to the 100's, a bullet whizzed by her head and into the container behind her. Rolling forward and into cover, Tenten blindfired in the direction which the bullet came from. Sighing, Tenten slowly peeked the corner, looking down the Holographic sight of the MP7. Tenten quickly retreated back under cover as several bullets impacted the container she was hiding behind, just barely missing her face. Shaking her head, Tenten continued moving. There was no doubt in her mind that it was Arisa on her tail.

In the distance, near the large cranes responsible for arranging the crates, Tenten spotted a green container. _016…I can't see if it's a 2 or a 3. Either way, it's either that one, or the one before it._ Bursting into a full sprint, Tenten began to run in a serpentine pattern. Looking back for just a split second, Tenten spotted at least 5 men running towards her. Some of them stopped to take shots at her, but she wasn't worried about them. The chances of them hitting her were slim to none. Walking behind them however, was Arisa.

 _I know I'm going to regret this…_ Against her better judgement, Tenten spun around and fired at the Rising Sun, taking out at least 3 of them. Most of them panicked and moved into cover. Arisa on the other hand stayed put and calmly reloaded her MP5. Right as Tenten slid around a corner, Arisa opened fire. Tenten's eyes lit up as she looked at the container in front of her. **0162**. _Yes!_ Reloading, Tenten considered her options. In close combat, there was no way that the MP7 would lose to the MP5. The MP7 was designed to replace the MP5 for crying out loud! But on the off chance that she missed, then Tenten was dead.

Taking a moment to collect her breath, Tenten spun around, and met Arisa face to face. Despite the situation, Tenten couldn't help but think, _Man, she's hot!_ Tenten still held down the trigger. It was too bad that Arisa rolled to the side, dodging the five round burst. Before Arisa could fire, Tenten kicked the MP5 free from Arisa's grip. That didn't don't stop Arisa from pulling out her M9. Ducking underneath the pistol fire, Tenten wrestled Arisa to the ground,

"Heh…Argh…You know it's rude to hold a girl down like this." Tenten said. She was breathing hard as she tried wrenching the M9 free. When she did, Arisa rolled away and ripped Tenten's own FN Five-Seven from its holster. The two women stood several meters apart from each other, both with pistols aimed at each other's heads. Their SMG's on the ground. "Well, seems we're at an impasse." Before Arisa could respond, Tenten quickly took out the remaining 2 Rising Sun soldiers behind her.

Arisa's eyes were twitching and her upper lip was curled up. "Useless. What are you going to do now? At this range, neither are going to miss. And I doubt you're going to just let me go past and retrieve the shipment. Speaking of which…How did you know about that?"

"Listen girl, you guy's gotta update your communication systems. It's too freaking easy to intercept your phone calls." Tenten replied. _M9's usually have a 15 round magazine, plus 1 in the chamber. I counted at least 10 shots fired off. So I'm going to assume that that leaves me with less than 4 rounds. At least 4 rounds._ From her peripheral vision, Tenten could see the edge of the harbour, the water of the Aochi River lapping up against the dock.

Tenten pulled the trigger. Instead of firing back, Arisa lunged forward and tackled Tenten against the container. Arisa held Tenten by her hands. In response, Tenten drove her knee upward into Arisa's stomach. If the assassin felt the blow, she didn't show it. With a growl, Arisa shoved her backside into Tenten and ripped the M9 out of Tenten's grip. Before Arisa could even lift the gun to aim, Tenten struck her in the wrist and followed up with a palm strike to the chest and ended the combo with a quick kick to the torso.

Stumbling to the side, Arisa pulled a knife out from her boot and swung wildly at Tenten. Reaching into her utility belt, Tenten scooped up a smoke pellet and flung directly at the blade. As the smoke began to expand and cover the area, Tenten rolled, grabbed the M9 off the ground and shot Arisa in the side.

"Argh!"

With the smoke clearing, Tenten knew that the gunshot didn't do much damage, as it probably just embedded itself into Arisa's flak jacket. Arisa stumbled, and was dazed. As Tenten pulled on the trigger once more, and heard nothing but a click, she kicked the assassin off of the harbour and into the waters of the Aochi. Tenten was fairly sure that Arisa was still alive, but she didn't care.

"Seems like I didn't need to use any of that shit I brought." Reaching up to her ear piece, Tenten let out a sigh of relief. "Sasuke, this is Tenten. I've secured the package. Waiting for further orders."

" _This is Sasuke. Satoru and Naruto should be on their way with the retrieval vehicle. Stay out. Did you run into any trouble?"_

Tenten thought about it for a second.

"No. Not really."

* * *

 _The Nest, Uchiha Residence, Uchiha Ward, Konoha_

 _9:10 A.M._

 _07/05/2016_

 _~Kurama Uzumaki~_

* * *

It took some time to figure out what it really was that Satoru, Naruto and Tenten brought to the nest the night before. From what Kurama could tell, it was a drone. Well, three really large drones. When he saw them fully assembled, Satoru was shocked and asked to be alone with the drones, so that he could fully investigate the drones. Whatever they were, Kurama was sure that those drones were anything but conventional.

Last night was a long one. From decrypting that computer chip, helping Satoru polish up the ASU's operating systems, collecting data on the Rising Sun and just gathering data in-general, to hacking into the All Seeing Eye's database. As it turned out, Sekai Industries weren't as innocent as they were saying they were. For the last 2 years or so, there was 3 pieces of evidence hinting to the possibility that the company was funding the new iteration of the Rising Sun.

Exhibit A. Someone by the name of Edogawa Meguro had received a very, _very_ generous sum of money from the company. Kurama did a little more digging. As it turns out, Edogawa Meguro was a pseudonym that the treasurer of the Rising Sun's First iteration, Meiji Shibuya was using. Now the reason the ASE hadn't brought Sekai industries down was because despite such clear information, Meiji didn't actually do anything with the money that he received several months after the first iteration of the Rising Sun was dismantled. Until Kurama dug a little deeper into several other intelligence agencies. Kiri's HUNTER had actually found out that Meiji had given the Black Crows a contract. What it was for, no one knew. But what they did know, was that Meiji had used up nearly all of the money he had gotten to hire the Black Crows.

Exhibit B. A good chunk of the Sekai Industries' higher-ups were in some way involved with the old Rising Sun. The general manager, treasurer and at least 4 board room executives were known to have paid the Rising Sun for protection. The marketing manager was known to have played a very small role in one of the Rising Sun's s drug smuggling operations and the CEO himself had funded the Rising Sun with money from his own bank account.

And exhibit C. Two years ago, a huge shipment of unknown technology and cars manufactured by Sekai Industries had mysteriously vanished. All evidence pointed to the ASE being responsible for the crime. But judging from the crime scene and all other evidence, it was more likely that Sekai Industries had gifted the Rising Sun a whole batch of new tech and a fleet of cars. In fact, the convoy that Tenten had seen yesterday, along with the convoy that Sasuke and Deidara had been chased by last year all actually fit in with the cars that were "stolen" from Sekai Industries.

Kurama was brought out of reveire by Satoru bursting into the meeting room, rousing Naruto and Lee from their naps. At the same time, Sasuke returned from the bathroom, and Sakura stood up from her seat and made her way over to the ASU. From what Kurama remembered, Deidara and Shino were off in the new hideout, doing a more thorough checkup of the place. Tenten and Ana were surveying Konoha Harbour in the Shinkai Ward.

"You guys need to see this." Satoru said, making his way to the ASU and bringing up several photos of the drone. Some being cross sections and others being of just the outside or the inside. "This is one of the drones that we picked up from the Rising Sun Shipment yesterday. And it is worse than any other idea we could have of thought of."

Sasuke folded his arms. "How so?"

"The drones are armed with 6 missiles with explosive power like an ICBM. Not quite the range, but the same amount of firepower. These drones also have frequency and electronic jammers built into them as well a laser beam that can cut through steel. The drones themselves are made from a cheap, yet strong and bulletproof metallic alloy. According to some tests, the drones should also have the carrying capacity for more than 12 of those same missiles. These drones are also unmanned and have a range of 500 Km at the _minimum_ and 1000 to 1200 at the maximum. The drones also some form of stealth technology that makes them invisible to radar technology, and the only sound they make is the sound of the missiles being fired off. And that's not even all of it. Also, most of the material used to make these drones, are ridiculously cheap. According to my math, a single one of these drones, should only cost about several million dollars. And that's mostly because of the missiles. When I was looking through the drones, most of the weapon systems on it were homemade. And if Sekai Industries is indeed funding the Rising Sun, then there's no way that only three of these drones were ever created."

"How many do you think were created?" Sasuke asked.

"At least 5 to 8. That adds up to 30 ICMB like missiles at the least, and over 48 at the most. Do you know how much damage that those would cause? Do you know how much damage an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile causes? A lot of fucking damage. Now imagine 48 of those. All at once."

Everyone looked at each other. Sasuke sighed. "I was hoping that you would have better news to share. It's pretty much confirmed that Sekai Industries is working with the Rising Sun. What for, I don't know. But right now, we can't deal with these drones. Not when we aren't sure of exact numbers. Right now, there's a bigger problem."

Satoru's face flushed red and he clenched his teeth. "A _bigger_ problem!? Are you joking!? If there's an army of these drones out there, then there isn't any bigger problem!"

"Satoru. Enough." Sasuke glared at his younger brother. "While these drones are indeed going to be trouble, I don't see them becoming too big of a problem. I'll notify Danzo about them and he'll set the All Seeing Eye and ANBU on the mission instead. They'll be able to deal with this drone problem far better than we can."

It was obvious that Satoru wanted to say more, but Naruto put a hand on his shoulder and held him back. "Tch. Fine. Don't come crying to me when this comes back to bite you in the ass. Go on, what's this _big problem_ of yours?"

"When we were scouring Sekai Tower for intel, Sakura came upon this." Sasuke said, bringing up the file of a person named, Sekai Shibuya. "This is Sekai Sonoda. According to this file, she is the creator of Sekai Industries."

"Bullshit. Honoka Sonoda is the founder of the Sekai Industries." Satoru shot back. "Are you sure those files are legitimate? Here let me see…" After doing a little cross checking and referencing different data, Satoru's eyes softened. "Okay…It seems that you're right."

"Yes. But you're also correct, in that officially, it's Honoka Shibuya that's credited with the creation of Sekai Industries. However, according to this, Honoka's granddaughter is the founder. What makes it even more interesting is that, according to official files and the ASE's civilian database, Sekai Sonoda doesn't exist." Sasuke flicked the file away and brought up a new one. "Until we found this in their private servers. This file lists Sekai as Sekai Shibuya, as opposed to Sonoda."

"Shibuya…" Lee muttered. "Aren't a majority of the Rising Sun's lieutenants a member of the Shibuya family?" Sasuke nodded.

"Yes. While this doesn't explicitly make Sekai a priority target, it does put a lot of suspicion on her. That is if Sekai Sonoda even really exists. That isn't the only thing we got from Sekai Tower. Meiji Shibuya, under the alias Mirai Ayase, had withdrawn over 500 million yen straight from Sekai Industries Main funds. As of right now, I have no idea what he's done with the money, but it won't be good, that's for sure."

"But that isn't the problem." Sakura spoke up and brought up a picture of what appeared to be an abandoned series of warehouses by a lake. Then Sakura brought on screen a satellite image. And from what Kurama could see, there was a huge array of vehicles on a clearing to the west of the warehouses. "This is a series of warehouses on the eastern side of Lake Senju. If we zoom in on those vehicles, clean up and enhance the image, then we can see that those vehicles over there are armoured and outfitted with weapons. Some of them look like tanks and that one in particular," Sakura said pointing to a large, blocky shape situated against the lake. "Appears to be an anti-aircraft gun. And according to x-rays of the warehouses themselves, there are at least 20 to 30 of these anti-aircraft guns as well as several military grade drones."

Satoru leaned closer. "Hm…from the looks of it, it seems like they're building a harbour. If I remember correctly, Lake Senju connects to the Senju River. And the Senju River and Aochi River meet in the Shinkai Ward."

"That's in the center of the city. And both rivers are definitely wide enough to fit in cargo ships. The Shinkai Ward's harbour is also the largest in the city and are owned by Sekai Industries. If Sekai Industries really is working with the Rising Sun, then whatever they're planning, it definitely will involve the harbour." Sasuke continued. "And if Mei Terumi's information is correct, which it is, then the first Rising Sun terrorist attack is going to be this Friday. I've already informed Danzo, but I doubt that we'll be getting any help from them."

With a frown Satoru sat down. "But what would they even target in the Shinkai ward? It's all just a bunch of office buildings."

In response, Naruto brought up a 3D map of the ward using the ASU's holographic projection system at Sasuke's urging. "While most of the Shinkai Ward is indeed mostly office buildings, there are several structures that I believe could be potential targets. The largest and most likely target is the Hoshido Hills Complex near the center. That's over several hundred homes and over a thousand people. Chuo District also houses the Sunagakure embassy and the Mikado Shrine." Sasuke said, highlighting said locations. "Tsubasa District is also a probable target. It's one of Konoha's largest entertainment areas and is the center of the Ward. We can't cover all three locations. Not unless ANBU and the All Seeing Eye help us."

A serious look appeared on Sasuke's face. "Listen. We only have 3 days to figure out where the Rising Sun are going to attack. If we want everything to go smoothly, that's the one thing we need to figure out. Everything else depends on our skill and luck." He looked around the room. "Does anyone have anything else to say?"

The ASU's speakers turned on. "Yeah, we got a problem here Sasuke." It was Tenten. "I just saw one of the Rising Sun's SUV's drive and by, and you're not going to believe it, but…they've got Mizuki."

Sasuke's eyes widened. "But we would know if that was the case! Right Satoru?"

His brother nodded and began to work his magic. "Yeah, The only way that Mizuki would have been able to get away without us noticing was if he was…dead." Everyone looked at him. "But that should be impossible. The Rising Sun would've had to have gotten in here to kill him in the first place."

"Actually…I might have an answer for that." Sakura said. "When I was analyzing Mizuki's body, I noticed that his veins were a little green and his pupils had dilated to an abnormal size and his heart was beating in an arrhythmic pattern. He also seemed to have trouble breathing. All of which are symptoms of victims who were poisoned by Thanatos poison. At first I just assumed that it was because of the prison. The Blood Prison has been known to use small doses of Thanatos poison as a truth serum. In small doses it can cause those symptoms but it doesn't kill."

"You think that it was the Blood Prison that did this?" Satoru asked.

"No. There's a device that's only found on the black market. It can inject poison into the bloodstream in a harmless form. But with the click of a button, the poison turns lethal. I think that whoever poisoned Mizuki, did it before he was caught." Sakura replied. "Was it even worth it, going after Mizuki?"

"I wouldn't say no just yet." Satoru said. "Ana-san, I think that I gave you a tracking round, just in case. Do you think you can hit them?" She scoffed.

"Of course. They're at a red light right now." The sniper responded loading the tracking round into her M40A1. "And…got em." The gun hardly made a sound as it fired.

"Good. But what would they do with the body?" Satoru voiced. "It's not like they can just dump into the river like the mafia does right?"

"No. I think they're just going to burn the body all together. Tenten, Ana, think you can tail them? Afterwards…Just mark their hideout on a map and figure out where to go from there." Sasuke said, before letting out a sigh. "How are things on your end Shino? Deidara?"

"Things are going fine boss!" Deidara's muffled voice came through the speaker. "Got a lot of files here that you're going to want to see in person. But other than that, I don't think there's much here that we can really use. Unless we just want to use this a safe house or something. It's falling apart, and I think the ceiling is stuffed with asbestos or something. It would take at least 2 or 3 days to clear the entire place out of asbestos. Time that I don't think we have."

"Actually, there is something here that might interest you Kurama-san." Shino's said. "What is it you ask? It's a pink laptop with a white cartoonish bunny emblazoned on one side. It was the only thing in the place that didn't seem to belong. And no, I didn't find this in the convention. It was in one of the hideout's living quarters. Why was it there? Presumably, the laptop belongs to whoever lived in that room. We also came upon several vials of an unidentified liquid marked as **Reaper X.** I'll leave them in your care Satoru-san."

Her brother snorted. "Reaper X. Yeah that doesn't sound like something dangerous at all. Couldn't they have come up with a name that wasn't so edgy?" Everyone ignored him.

"Okay, so I think that the next mission is pretty clear." Sasuke brought up the satellite image of the warehouses alongside Lake Senju. "We need to infiltrate this compound and get an accurate measurement of their ordinance and maybe find out what their target is. Though I doubt we'll find it there."

"Um…Sasuke?"

"Yes Tenten?"

"The car just exploded." Everyone in the room fell silent. "I repeat the car just exploded. Several members of the Rising Sun have just appeared and are now proceeding to throw more explosives onto the vehicle."

"Okay…Kurama can you get us a live feed?" She nodded and hacked into several street cams nearby as well the cameras of several phones filming the whole thing. It was a firestorm in the middle of the street. The men that Tenten said were from the Rising Sun, looked far more professional than any thugs of the Rising Sun that Kurama had seen before. They were wearing full on tactical gear, with fully decked out weapons with red dot sights and foregrips and laser sights.

"The real Rising Sun Elites. What are they doing?" Sakura muttered. It wasn't long before the entire car exploded and nothing was left but pieces of metal and a crater in the center of the street. "I'd advise that you get out there Tenten. Ana. ANBU are already on their way. No need for there to be any misunderstandings."

"Copy that boss. We're already going down the stairs to the parking lot. Tenten out." Sasuke sighed and rubbed his face.

"Alright, Sakura, Tenten and Ana, after you've returned, meet me in the briefing room. We need to get a move on. The Rising Sun won't just sit around twiddling their fingers idly while we ponder on what they could possibly be doing. If we want answers, we're going to have to be proactive."

As Sasuke passed by him, Satoru handed his brother a small pen shaped device. Sasuke took a look at it and stared at Satoru with some disbelief. "You might need it. You might not. I can't say I have any control over them, but it's worth giving it a shot. Anyways, times a wasting. Get to it. I'll talk to you once you hit the ground. Senju Lake is only a 30 minute drive outside the city."

Before they could really infiltrate the base, the Fireteam had to wait till it night fell. On their computers Naruto was busy hacking away at the base's security whilst she herself was looking through the laptop that Deidara found. There was a lot of encrypted data on the thing, but nothing that Kurama couldn't decrypt. As the clock struck 10, Satoru began the operation.

"Mission start."

* * *

 **Sorry for the long wait! I was busy with exams, Overwatch and 9gag and all that stuff. But now that school is over, you might see some more chapters, if I'm not too lazy, busy playing Overwatch or browsing on 9gag. If you have any feedback, then please leave a review or PM me.**


	5. Episode 5

_Shinkai Ward, All Seeing Eye Headquarters, Konoha_

 _4:35 P.M._

 _07/05/2016_

 _~Shikamaru Nara~_

* * *

It was a…interesting work day so far, to say the least. There was the gunfight down at the Kasai Ward Docks. And then there was the exploding car downtown in the Shinkai Ward with the Rising Sun's elite mooks swarming all over the place. To say it was interesting, would be the understatement of the year.

All of it was troublesome, Shikamaru thought. And Shikamaru wouldn't have even bothered with the day. Of course though, Asuma had other thoughts. Why couldn't the chief just let him have his break? Instead, Shikamaru had to lead an investigative team on the ground to figure out what the hell was going on.

Looking at the situation now, there were several things running through Shikamaru's mind. The first and most likely answer was that the Rising Sun were finally about to strike. It was also the answer that Shikamaru hated the most. Not only because it would be the most troublesome, but because it would also have the most profound impact. If he could just figure out what the Rising Sun were planning, then there was a chance that the ASE could intercept them and stop whatever it was that they were planning. Of course, it would be a lot harder than just finding enough intel to make a move and then actually making the move. No. A lot more planning would have to be done. And that was Shikamaru's specialty.

With a sigh, the Nara genius stood of the side and lit a smoke. It was a bad habit, he knew that. One that he picked up from Asuma. But in his line of work, where danger lies at every corner, where even the smallest mistake could kill you, smoking was the last thing on Shikamaru's priority list.

There were several things that didn't line up though. Witnesses reported that the men riding the car were two very prominent enforcers from the Rising Sun and that the man in the trunk was Mizuki Asashiro. Who, if Shikamaru recalled correctly was supposed to be in the most impenetrable jail in the country. Discounting the break in several days ago. Though Shikamaru suspected that the all of them were connected. There was also an attack on a Casino is Tanzaku town. A casino that was well known to have been in the pockets of one Akaza Shibuya.

Sighing, Shikamaru sauntered over to Ino, analyzing the crime scene intently, note pad in her hand. And off to the side was Choji, a donut in his hand, giving the stereotype that cops love donuts more evidence. But then again, didn't everyone like donuts? Regardless, he approached Choji. Despite his friend's considerable girth, Choji was the closest thing the ASE had to a coroner, without him actually being a coroner.

"What's your take on it?"

"Hm…Well, from what I've gathered, Mizuki was already dead before the car exploded. It was a good thing that the black marker info broker was in the trunk, otherwise he would've been unrecognizable. I've already sent samples of his blood back to the lab. We should have the results back in half an hour or so, if Shizune-san can get here early today."

"What about the other two?"

Choji shook his head. "The explosion killed them instantly. And even if they weren't their bodies would be too charred to be recognizable. But from what we got from eyewitness accounts the two enforcers were Hishiro Kohei and Ichiya Genkaku."

"They were associated with the Rising Sun? Last I checked they were working for Orochimaru. And betraying that guy is the basically suicide. You don't betray Orochimaru."

"I suppose." Choji agreed. "But, Orochimaru hasn't been sighted near the Republic in years. And his presence in the city is all but gone. I mean, there was a giant intergang turf war a year ago. Orochimaru probably still has some contacts in the city, because this is Orochimaru we're talking about."

"Orochimaru would be the only roadblock in the Rising Sun's way, if he was still here. It makes sense that the Rising Sun is capitalizing on this. Nabbing all of Orochimaru's guys, it makes sense." Shikamaru rubbed his chin. "But if they were part of the Rising Sun now, why would they attack their own guys? Ah, you got anything to report Ino?"

The blonde handed Shikamaru a crushed bullet.

"It's a tracking device. I found it embedded by the license plate. Or what remained of the license plate anyways. The actual tracking chip imbedded in it is more advanced than anything we have right now. All I'm wondering is why it was delivered with a bullet." Shikamaru frowned and took a closer look at the bullet.

Shikamaru reached into his pocket, pulled out his phone, and went straight to the magnifying app. He aimed the camera at the crushed bullet and zoomed in. Right into a tiny sigil etched into the brass. A sigil of a fan. Frowning, Shikamaru handed the bullet back to Ino. The Uchiha symbol. What was it doing on that bullet? But Shikamaru did suppose that it made sense. The only person who could make a tracker that advanced and small was Satoru Uchiha. Sasuke's brother. And he was only 16, so who knew what else was in store for the future.

With that in mind, Shikamaru did know that Sasuke was working for Danzo in exchange for his freedom. While he didn't trust the guy, Shikamaru would accept all the help he needed. Especially in taking down the Rising Sun. Though, Shikamaru still didn't think it would be enough. Because as they say, "Cut off the head of a hydra, and two more will grow in it's place." Shikamaru didn't believe that fully eliminating the Rising Sun would result in an era of peace. In fact, it was possible that some of the even larger criminal syndicates like Rain City's Akatsuki, or the Iron City's Samurai Syndicate would come in and try to take over. And that, Shikamaru believed would be worse. The Rising Sun were the only thing holding them back. And once the Rising Sun are gone, then there is nothing stopping them.

His phone began to ring. "Sorry, gotta take this. Probably the chief." Walking briskly to the side, Shikamaru went underneath the caution tape and took a left into the patio of a café. It was indeed the chief. "Yo. What's up? We're wrapping things up here. Got a lot of interesting stuff. Some blood samples, reverse engineering tech, crime scene deconstruction. A lot of that."

" _Good. Now, normally I wouldn't ask this of you,"_ At that Shikamaru sighed. " _But after you're done there, I want you to meet up with Yugao and Genma down by Tobirama International Airport. They'll fill in you on the mission."_

"How troublesome. Can you at least give me a hint?"

Asuma chuckled. " _No can do. Now get going."_

Running his hand through his hair, Shikamaru took another deep puff from his cigar before putting it out against the wall and dropping it into a garbage bin. His car was parked several streets down. In Shinkai, there is no place to park in the streets. He passed by Ino and Choji. "Everything wrapped up? Good. We'll reconvene back at HQ. Right now though, gotta head down to TI Airport." His two colleagues nodded. The police had already collected all of the body parts, the shards of metal and the firemen had already put out the fire. All that was left to do was to remove the caution tape and soon traffic would be back to normal.

Tobirama International Airport was the busiest airport in the world. A total of a hundred million passengers went through those terminals and security every day. With over 5 runways, all of which were over two thousand meters long, over a thousand flights took off and landed every single day. There were also over 210 terminals spread out over an area of 15 Km2.

Shikamaru couldn't say that he envied the security that had to work there. With over a quarter of a million passing by almost daily, the amount of assholes you would meet would be astounding. He also didn't envy the air traffic controllers. All the landings and takeoffs and all the delays they had to manage. Simply put, Shikamaru was not cut out for that kind of job.

And to think that Tobirama International wasn't even the only airport in the city. There was also Namikaze-Uzumaki Konoha International Airport. Also really busy. Though not to the extent of Tobirama International.

From the center of the Shinkai Ward, it was a long, traffic ridden drive to the city perimeter, but because he was technically a member of the police force, Shikamaru had sirens on his car. Of course, after being reprimanded for inappropriate use, Shikamaru could only use it sparingly. Fortunately though, due to the exploding car and ensuing arrival of the Rising Sun's elite, there was minimal traffic.

But as he got closer and closer to the airport, the traffic progressively got worse and worse. For some reason, it had been like that for the last few weeks. It was almost to the point that Shikamaru had begun to think that something was up. Probably this was the reason that Asuma sent him to help Yugao and Genma.

It wasn't difficult to find a parking spot. Shikamaru just flashed his badge at the security and they let him park in the staff parkade, which was over ten floors high. It was a maze. As Shikamaru searched around for a parking spot, he came across Genma's Aston Martin and Yugao's KTM 1290 Super Duke GT. Which, if Shikamaru recalled correctly, was a birthday from Yugao's boyfriend and fellow ASE agent Hayate Gekko. "How the hell does everyone get these fancy ass cars and I'm stuck with this old thing. Hah…Well, at least I don't have to pay a mechanic to make sure that this thing is operational. Ah! There!"

Quickly parking, Shikamaru checked his phone. There was a message from Yugao. Shikamaru frowned. "Wait…I don't remember giving her my number…" Though he did remember giving Genma his number. Well regardless, Yugao told him to meet the two of them down by the main lobby in the east wing…Which was all the way on the other side of the airport. With a groan, Shikamaru made his way through the sea of tourists, immigrants, and really irritated security. Some of the security shot looks of suspicion at him, but they were quickly waved away by the sight of his badge. That and his 1911 pistol fit snug in his vertical shoulder holster.

He found Genma sitting down in a couch surrounded by gift shops and stores. Shikamaru saw Yugao in a trinket shop, looking intently at _something._

"Ah, Shikamaru. Glad to see you're finally here. Come, take a seat." The veteran agent wore a dark blue jacket over a white hoodie with a backwards cap. He had his Oto's on. Shikamaru shook his head. Oto's were so expensive, yet they were sorely lacking in quality. There wasn't a single music video, ad or movie that didn't have Oto's front and center. Regardless, Shikamaru knew that Genma liked overpriced things.

"Yeah, of course, totally not suspicious at all. Anyways, I would really like to get this over with. Weather App says that there's going to be a bunch of clouds later and I would like to get some cloud watching in before it starts to rain."

"Whatever. To get you started, we're on the lookout for someone suspicious. Got a call at around 4:25 for a possible terrorist, Yugao and I happened to be the closest in the area."

"Okay. But why do you need my help? Clearly you guys can do this on your own. You've taken down dozens of potential terrorists before."

Genma sighed. "The boys back in HQ just finished analyzing the footage that the Airport Security camera's managed to get of the guy. Here take a look. I want to see your conclusion." The other agent rifled through his backpack that was propped up against a coffee table and handed Shikamaru a stack of papers. "Yes, I know, outdated." He said, popping a lollipop in his mouth.

It was a picture of a man in an immaculate white suit with a pearl white fedora. Golden chains hung around his neck and his ears were pierced with small golden pieces with a diamond in the center. In the second picture, the man pulled back his sleeve to look at his golden watch. In the third picture, the lapel of the man's suit jacket lifted up as a cart full of luggage went past. There wasn't anything special in that picture. Except…for the emblem stitched on the inside of the jacket. Two congruent lines, forming an incomplete arrow with the tip of the head missing. It was a symbol anyone working in the Intelligence Community knew the moment they lay their eyes upon it. The symbol of Kakuzu Orihara.

Kakuzu Orihara. Was there anyone else that was as dangerous as this hitman? Over 300 people, all influential, rich, crime lords, mob bosses, corrupt politicians, ambassadors, to someone's wife, all of them were known to have been killed by one man. Kakuzu Orihara. A hired gun who would anything for money. _Anything._ And he'd been doing it for over 60 years, and still, he could evade capture like he was still in his prime. Shikamaru suspected that PED's were at play here, but even so, the man didn't seem human.

The last time Kakuzu Orihara had been sighted was during the viral outbreak of the Thanatos Virus in what was formerly known as Takigakure. A city known for its waterfall. The largest one in the continent actually. The city however was made famous from its so called _holy water_ that came from the waterfall. Of course it was nothing but a sham.

Several months ago however, the Thanatos Incident occurred. Over 95% of Takigakure's population was wiped out from a mysterious virus that had just been recently called the Thanatos Virus. Takigakure police that survived the incident reported seeing Kakuzu in the area and one Water Filtration plant worker saw a man with a shiny golden ring capped with a ruby dump an unknown chemical into the water.

Thanatos Virus has a 100% death rate. Anyone afflicted will die within thirty minutes to an hour of contracting the virus. Symptoms of the virus included severe headaches, bleeding for no reason, and mouth ulcers. Late stage symptoms included bloody diarrhea, hair loss, blindness and severe brain damage. And…there is no cure. As of yet.

If Kakuzu Orihara were here…then that could only mean…"Have you already called HQ and told to them to increase security at all the water filtration plants?" Genma nodded. "And do we know what flight he came from? We could check the passenger list for any fake aliases."

"Already done that. He was on Kumogakure West Airlines flight 348. The alias he used was Kuwabara Kei."

"Damn. We need to find him now. You said they got the call at 4:25? Chances are that he's still here. It takes around maybe 5 minutes to reach the luggage carousels and another 5 to slog through all the security. What the hell is Yugao doing looking at keychains and not looking for Kakuzu?"

"Actually, she spotted someone who fit the description of the man in the photos go inside. But, that was over five minutes ago." Yugao took one last look around before heading towards them. Seeing this, Genma stood up. "I suppose we should start looking now right?"

"Yes. If we want to get anywhere, we're going to have to start looking now and split up. I'll keep in contact with you guys." Yugao Uzuki reached into her denim jacket and pulled out her earpiece. Shikamaru nodded and put his own earpiece in. Pulling out his pistol, Shikamaru got to work.

To avoid any complications with the police, Genma went over and had a talk with them. Shikamaru took a quick look at a nearby map. The luggage carousels were all the way in the north wing and down two floors from where he was.

" _Everyone, please be on the lookout for a man dressed in a white suit, with gold jewelry, appearing to be in his late 40's. If you do spot him, do not approach and alert security immediately. I repeat, alert security."_

Not many people paid any attention to it. Shikamaru was fine with that. He would rather no one pay any attention, as opposed to everyone panicking because of a potential terrorist. Panicking civilians weren't something that Shikamaru wanted to deal with. But some people were moving rather quickly.

At the sight of Shikamaru's gun, the people began to shrink away. "Please get out of my way." He asked. "Don't make this any harder than it has to be. I too want to go home and watch Weirder Stuff. Now please don't cause me anymore trouble. If you see anyone shady or suspicious looking, please alert security. They are more than capable of handling it."

As he got to a mostly empty escalator, his ear piece began to buzz. " _Shikamaru! I think I see Kakuzu! He's over by the car rental building! I'm on the way there! See if you can cut him off. Genma's on his way too."_ Yugao's voice came out. It sounded like she was running.

"Rodger that. On my way." The car rental building was just outside. It would probably take less than 2 minutes to get there if Shikamaru ran. Of course, that's not taking the pedestrian traffic into account. Well, regardless, Shikamaru needed to get there as fast as possible.

A woman pushing a baby carriage came to a screeching halt as Shikamaru leapt over the railings of the second floor down to the ground. "Sorry lady. Important business here." The woman yelled something, but Shikamaru couldn't hear it over the sound of the baby crying. Shikamaru could see Kakuzu enter a pristine white car. Just before he entered, the mercenary looked towards the airport, and tipped his hat.

BOOOM!

Shikamaru ducked as something behind him exploded. " _Shikamaru! I'll handle this! Go and help Yugao! Kakuzu is the priority here! Don't let him get away! If he does, worse things are going to happen!"_

With a nod that he knew Genma wasn't able to see, Shikamaru bolted through the revolving door. The white car pulled out of the rental building and swerved around a bus. Shikamaru couldn't get an ideal look at it. "Damnit. Yugao! Where are you?"

" _Follow the car! Try and shoot out the tires. I'll try and cut him off by car."_ Shikamaru sprinted down the sidewalk. The car disappeared behind a truck. With a tired groan, Shikamaru ran out into the street and leapt over the barrier separating the traffic. He swerved through several more cars. Finally, Shikamaru caught wind of the car. It was a pure white Mazda with a license plate ZCD 848.

Firing a shot, Shikamaru leapt over another barrier and onto the sidewalk. He fired another shot into the air, causing the crowd around him to disperse. The car in front of Kakuzu stopped. With such a brief window, Shikamaru took aim and fired at the car. He could hear at least one of the wheels go flat. All around him, people were screaming and taking cover.

Several police cruisers arrived. Shikamaru put a hand up to his ear piece. "This is Agent Shikamaru Nara of the All Seeing Eye. I want all units to converge on the white Mazda with the license plate number ZCD 848. I repeat, the white Mazda with the license plate ZCD 848."

The police began to converge slowly on the car. Just as Shikamaru was within a few meters of the car, the driver side door flew open and Kakuzu burst out. "Hold your fire! Take him non-lethally!" If Kakuzu were to die, that would cause a whole lot of problems. For starters, they would never be able to figure out what Kakuzu Orihara was doing in Konoha. Who was he working for? Regardless, a lot of questions would go unanswered if Kakuzu were to die here and now.

Kakuzu weaved through the opposing traffic. One of the cops got close. The mercenary flung his fedora at the cop. Blood spurted all over the place as the officer crumpled to the ground, clutching at his throat. "Damnit!" Kakuzu grabbed the police officer's Glock, and flipped over an abandoned motorcycle and jumped over the railing and down into an outlet mall parking lot.

"Shikamaru! Come on!" Yugao appeared on her motorcycle, parking it by the railing and jumping down to the parking lot as well. Shikamaru followed suit. Shikamaru and Yugao drew their handguns and opened fire on Kakuzu. The hired gun took cover behind a minivan. "Quick, take cover!" Yugao called out, diving behind a planter box as Kakuzu opened fire on them with the handgun he took.

Shikamaru could see Kakuzu take off and run off towards the outlet. Grunting, Shikamaru picked himself up from the ground and chased after him. All the while civilians ran around like headless chickens, or stood still like statues."Guh!" Shikamaru ducked his head as a bullet whizzed by.

'He went into Foot Storage!" Yugao called out to him, taking cover behind a pillar. Behind them, an ASE truck pulled up into the parking lot. He and Yugao shared a look before bursting into the store.

A bunch of boxes were strewn about, with shoes laying all around. Several workers cowered in the corner, some hid underneath a chair and one was hiding behind the main display at the center of the store. The door to the back was open and swinging.

Without thinking, Shikamaru ran towards the door. As soon as he took a step in, Shikamaru was met with a kick to the gut. A bullet from Yugao whizzed by and penetrated a stray shoe box lying around. As Shikamaru roused himself up, he could see the tail of Kakuzu's suit jacket as the mercenary rounded a corner.

"Come on." Yugao helped him up. "I saw some officers go around to cut Kakuzu off. I know for a fact that that's not going to go well." The sounds of fighting down the hall only proved her right. Before he went and had another brainfart, Shikamaru reloaded.

"Alright. Let's go." He and Yugao crept down the hallway, guns aimed at head level. A body flew out of the hallway and smacked against the wall opposite to them. A gun fired and a pool of blood appeared on the officer's chest. Shikamaru rounded the corner and fired a shot. It whizzed over Kakuzu's shoulder. The hired gun continued to run and shoulder charged the emergency exit door. He quickly shut it behind him.

Yugao kicked the door. It didn't budge. "Damn. He must blocked it with something." Thinking quickly, Shikamaru shot at the hinges and pulled the door out of its hinges. He vaulted over a medium sized dumpster. Kakuzu was in the process of climbing a fire escape.

The assassin didn't even budge as Shikamaru, Yugao and a few other policemen opened fire on him. He was too far away to be hit accurately with a handgun. "Shikamaru, think you can catch him on foot?" He shot Yugao a look. This was Kakuzu Orihara. There was an old story that went around during Shikamaru's first year that Kakuzu Orihara once lifted a car and that he jumped over two meters into the air. "Come on, he's like 60 years old. You can catch him. We'll follow from the ground. I'll try and cut him off. Maybe bring some heavier fire power too."

Groaning for the umpteenth time that hour, Shikamaru bolted. He caught the second bar of the fire escape ladder and boosted himself up to the second floor. Down below he could see the rest of police swarm around the building. Yugao on the other hand had taken an old M14 from the trunk of a police car and had crossed the street to an adjacent building.

As he got up to the top of the building, Shikamaru could see Kakuzu run towards the next building vault over to it. Sighing, Shikamaru gave chase. The greedy bastard was fast for someone who 60 years old. But he wasn't that fast. Though it wasn't the speed that was off putting. It was the fact that it didn't seem like Kakuzu was slowing down at all. _That's some endurance._

The freeway was coming up soon. Across the street, Yugao was keeping up with the two of them, and occasionally stopping to take pot shots at Kakuzu. As the assassin jumped down onto a vent and round the corner onto a balcony, he slowed down. Seeing this, Shikamaru decided to take advantage. With a grunt, the ASE agent leapt from the top of the building down to the balcony in one go.

Quickly drawing his 1911, Shikamaru found himself with the barrel of a Glock 18 pointed at his face. His own handgun was aimed towards Kakuzu's own head. Up close Kakuzu was a lot creepier than Shikamaru expected. Dark skin, a ton of stitches and unnerving eyes. Green irises with no pupils and red sclera. His hair was dark brown and reached just above his shoulder. In the building above Yugao stopped and took aim. Kakuzu looked up at her before looking back down at Shikamaru.

"I commend you boy. No one since Itachi Uchiha has been able to make by heart race like that in a long while. But, this is where the chase ends."

"Oh really?" Shikamaru drawled out. Neither him nor Kakuzu moving an inch, their aim steady and true. It was all a matter of who could fire first. Shikamaru doubted that he would have time to fire back if Kakuzu shot first. "What makes you say that?"

"This." Without warning, Kakuzu kicked the 1911 out of Shikamaru's hand and flipped off of the balcony onto a truck below. Shikamaru scrambled after his gun and leaned over the balcony railing. Kakuzu stood atop the truck and saluted him with two fingers.

"I am so gonna regret this." It was a bad idea yes. But it was the only idea that Shikamaru had thought of. And that was to throw himself off of the balcony onto the next truck that went by. The landing wasn't as smooth as Kakuzu's, but it worked. From up above, he could just hear Yugao facepalm.

"Get me my motorcycle!" He heard her yell. " _What were you thinking? Oh wait, you weren't. Just…hang tight will you?"_ She berated him through his ear piece.

"If this works Yugao, you owe your bike…For like a day." He heard her scoff but agree to it anyways. "Well, I don't plan on dying today. So you better get ready to hand those keys over to me."

Shikamaru hung on for dear life as the truck he was on switch lanes. Now he stood across from an amused Kakuzu. "I admit, no one has ever been this determined to catch me before. Not that it'll make a difference anyways." He raised his gun and fired.

Shikamaru rolled away in time. Reaching into his jacket, Shikamaru flicked open the Kumo Army knife within and stuck it into the roof of the truck. _Thank kami! I knew this would come in useful one day!_ In response, Shikamaru fired off several shots. All of them missed. _Damnit! This thing is shaking too much. I can't get a clear shot._ The two trucks would be going at least 110 to 130 Km/h on the freeway with various other cars going at around the same speed. If Shikamaru wanted to come out of this alive, he would have to take Kakuzu down before they ever got to the freeway.

Again, without thinking, something he was rather well known for, Shikamaru launched himself at Kakuzu. Shikamaru wasn't stupid enough to think that he could hit a moving target without leading. But it was even harder to hit a moving target that was on a moving vehicle. One that was moving at 20 Km/h. For once Shikamaru was grateful for the traffic. Luckily for Shikamaru, Kakuzu was too surprised by such an act of stupidity that he couldn't react. Shikamaru grabbed the old man his waist and tackled him off of the truck right into a police cruiser.

"Oh…man. That's gonna leave a mark." Shikamaru groaned as he lifted himself up from the car. He looked down with a start. Kakuzu was staring at his with amused eyes. _What the hell? Is this guy even human? Any normal person, fuck,_ _ **anyone**_ _would be dazed from something like that and here is this asshole smiling at me like we just got off of a roller coaster!_

Kakuzu rose from the car and lifted Shikamaru by the throat. The assassin pried the 1911 from Shikamaru's hand and threw it to the side. Shikamaru in turn thrust the knife into Kakuzu's jacket. Only for the blade to bend on contact with the fabric. Kakuzu laughed. "Heh. Nice try. This thing made of a bullet proof spider silk, what makes you think your rinky-dink little butter knife is going to do?" The oth3er officers nearby had their guns trained onto Kakuzu.

"Stand down! Don't shoot!" Yugao commanded, rolling in on her bike. She replaced the M14 with a Super 90 shotgun. "Let him go Kakuzu! Or we will open fire!" Kakuzu regarded Yugao like a wolf would regard a rabbit. He then laughed and threw Shikamaru into the side of a police truck and then bolted. Yugao and the others opened fire. Kakuzu hid behind the police truck. He then crossed the busy highway traffic like a man with a death wish and then hijacked a car.

"Damnit!" Shikamaru lifted himself from the truck. His back was sore all over and Shikamaru was pretty sure that some of his bones were broken. "We'll never catch him at this rate. Did we at least get the license plate of that car?" He asked as Yugao handed him his pistol.

"License plate was KAP 919 sir." An ANBU agent replied.

Shikamaru hissed as Yugao pulled out a shard of glass in his arm. She then tore off a piece of Shikamaru's shirt and wrapped it around his bleeding arm.

" _Yo Shikamaru, update me on the situation."_

"Genma? Ah, shit just hit the fan. Kakuzu got away. He's currently going down Highway 115 and probably heading downtown. He'll also probably ditch the car as soon as he can."

" _I think I can catch up with him."_

"Are you sure? Kakuzu has one hell of a head start. He'll already be in the city by the time you get here."

" _Shikamaru do you even know how fast an Aston Martin Vanquish V12 goes? 305 Km/h. And I won't even have to go all that fast. It also goes from 0-60 in just under 5 seconds. And I'll have you know that I'm a good driver as well. Now just sit tight and relax. I'll catch Kakuzu."_

Shikamaru really doubted that.

* * *

 _Highway 115, Konoha Perimeter_

 _4:50 P.M._

 _07/05/2016_

 _~Genma Shiranui~_

* * *

To be honest, Genma was terrified.

He claimed to be a good driver. He was. But Genma wasn't sure that he could drive down the highway at 250 Km/h and _not_ hit anyone. He was good yes. But Genma was far from being a driver that you only saw in movies like Swift & Seething. Oh how Genma wished he had Gin Risei's driving skill. But then again, it was Gin's character not himself who was a good driver. But regardless, Genma continued to accelerate and swerve wildly to avoid rear-ending anyone.

"Thank fuck for these sirens!" Genma called out, switching from the left most lane all the way to the center lane. He burst through a red light. "Fuck, I think I nicked that minivan's windshield. Oh well. Now then…Shikamaru!"

" _What is it?"_

"What kind of car did Kakuzu get into?"

" _I think it was a Mitsubishi Lancer with a license plate of KAP 919. He should be heading to a Water Filtration plant, so expect traffic to be minimal there. Yugao and I will try to meet up with you, but don't count on that. Try not to take Kakuzu on your own okay? The dude…to be frank, Kakuzu doesn't seem human. So watch out."_

"Gotcha. I'll try not to do anything stupid." Genma took in a deep breath and sucked on his lollipop harder. He had gone through 6 of those things already since the whole debacle began. It was Genma's way of dealing with stress. Genma ignored the honks of annoyed cars as he sped up a tiny bit, up to 285 Km/h. The traffic was starting to thin out as they gave way for the police officer in the super fancy supercar.

Genma's eyes scanned the horizon, looking for the car that Shikamaru had described to him. There were a ton of Lancers on the road, but only a couple of them were white, but none had a matching license plate. Groaning, Genma slowed down slightly. The awe inspiring skyline of Konoha appeared on the horizon and Genma knew that time was running out.

And then he spotted a white Lancer moving 20 above the speed limit. He couldn't see the license plate, but Genma was willing to bet that it was the car that he was looking for. As the car turned to the right into a hotel parkade, Genma drifted. As he drifted, Genma could finally see the License plate.

KAP 918

Genma frowned. 918? Shikamaru said it was 919. But then again, perhaps something was blocking part of the number, making it appear to be a 9. Regardless, Genma knew that this was the chance that he was waiting for. "This is Genma, I have a visual. Target has just entered the Hyuga Best Life Hotel by Hizashi Drive. All units converge. Target was last seen in a White Mitsubishi Lancer, License plate KAP 918. Do not approach alone, I repeat, do not approach alone. Target is armed and extremely dangerous."

Several police cruisers and an ANBU armoured truck stopped just outside of the parkade. Genma slowed didn't bother slowing down and paying for the parkade ticket and ran right through. Almost immediately, Genma slammed his foot down onto the brake and stopped as a woman followed by 3 kids and a puppy were crossing the road. He honked at them.

As soon as the mother and her kids were gone, Genma put the pedal to the metal, accelerating to as fast he could go in the parkade and still have decent control. Last he saw the car, it was going up to the top floor. However, just as Genma reached the second to last floor, there were cars blocking the way.

"Damnit. This is Genma, I'm pursuing the target on foot! I repeat, pursuing the target on foot!" Genma parked his Aston Martin by a set of stairs. He reached into his glove compartment and grabbed the MP5K inside.

Some ANBU agents came up from the stairwell, armed with SMGs and shotguns. "Lieutenant. Lead the way sir." The lead agent said to Genma. He nodded and made his way up the stairs to the top floor. Hooks flew through the air as ANBU agents began to rappel up the hotel parkade.

"Remember, shoot to incapacitate. Shoot to incapacitate. Do not shoot to kill." Genma reiterated Shikamaru's order and pulled back the charging handle of the MP5K. The white Lancer was in the center of the parkade. "And remember, no matter how good Kakuzu Orihara is, he's just one man. And a human. He can't take all of us out. And just to make sure, your weapons are firing rubber bullets right?" The ANBU captain nodded.

A chill went down Genma's spine as he and the others began to close in on the car. He scanned the rooftop. A couple of agents went behind places that Genma couldn't see and confirmed that Kakuzu was indeed nowhere to be seen. Something wasn't right here.

Genma made eye contact with the ANBU captain as they formed up around the car. Everyone's weapons were trained on in the interior. Kakuzu was in there alright. Sitting upright and still, his fedora covering his face. "On 3. 1."

The captain put his hand on the door handle.

"2."

A bead of sweat ran down Genma's forehead.

"3."

The captain burst into action and pulled the door open. Genma leapt up and into the car and pressed the barrel of the MP5K against Kakuzu's head. On the opposite side of the car, another ANBU group opened the driver side door and did the same thing.

"Kakuzu Orihara, you are under arrest for…Wait a minute." Kakuzu was furiously attempting to say something. Genma lifted the fedora and threw it into the back of the car. "What the hell?" It wasn't Kakuzu at all, but instead a man wearing Kakuzu's white suit jacket and pants and fedora. There was duct tape covering the man's mouth. "Search the car." Genma grabbed the man and pulled him out as the Captain and his men began to search through the car for anything that Kakuzu may have left.

After ripping the duct tape off of the man's face, he took several breaths. "Thank you. Thank you so much!"

"No problem. Now, I just need you to answer some questions for me. Did you see where Kakuzu went?"

The man paled. "N-no. I didn't. He told me that if I looked up he would…Oh shit, the bomb! Quick tell them to get away from there! HE put a bomb in the glove compartment! Don't open it!"

"Shit!" Genma grabbed him and threw him to the ground. The man's tip was too late. One of the ANBU had already opened the compartment. Almost instantly the car blew up. Genma looked up to see a hand land next to him. He rolled onto his back and aimed towards the bomb site. He was several cars away, and yet the SUV beside him was dented from the shockwave.

The bombsite on the other hand looked like several pounds of C4 blew it apart. The bodies of the ANBU agents searching it were all over the place. None of them were alive. Genma looked towards the man from the car. He was dead as well. A stray piece of metal from the car flew from the bombsite and landed in the man's neck. If he was still alive, he would be bleeding out in seconds.

Genma lifted himself up. The remaining ANBU operators began to close in on the site. The roar of a motorcycle engine caught Genma's attention. Shikamaru and Yugao had arrived.

"What the hell happened here?" Shikamaru asked as Genma was helped up by Yugao. "We heard the explosion two floors down."

"Well, you heard right. Damn. Must've have been at least 10 pounds of C4. Maybe even more." Genma looked at Shikamaru. "I knew Kakuzu Orihara was good, but this? He had, maybe 3 minutes to set it all up. Maybe even less if I didn't have to get out of the car. He had three minutes to dress this guy up in his suit, plant a bomb and then escape without a goddamn trace. What the hell are we dealing with here?"

The only person who Genma knew could cause the ANBU and its divisions the ASE and LEAF this much trouble were Itachi Uchiha, his brother, and Orochimaru. Just what were they dealing with?

Shikamaru shrugged. "Honestly I don't know. What I do know is that I don't know if Kakuzu is even human." He strode forward and inspected the site of the explosion. Only parts of the care frame were intact. And even then, they were twisted and burnt up beyond recognition. "Well, doesn't look like I'm gonna get anything from here. Damnit. We could solved the mystery of the Thanatos Virus and captured one of the most dangerous men out there if we caught Kakuzu! But then again, did we even stand a chance? Was it even remotely possible for "normal" guys like us to deal with someone like him?" Shikamaru asked.

Genma didn't have an answer to that.

After a tedious debriefing and a berating from the higher-ups back at HQ, Genma was stuck on monitor duty. There were a bunch of drug deals going on in the scummy district of Konoha known as Kiri Town and there was a firefight between gangs at Little Iwa. There was a robbery in progress down in the Hyuga Ward. But so far, the increased security of the water filtration plants all around town reported no suspicious activity and the workers reported nothing wrong with the water.

"So I guess we can rule that out." Genma muttered to himself, unwrapping a lollipop and popping it into his mouth.

Something fell to the ground in the background. "Oi! Kotetsu! Izumo! The fuck are two trying to do back there?" Genma called out.

Izumo snickered. "Moron here's trying to hypnotize himself into mastering martial arts moves."

"I'll have you know, that this actually works."

"Yeah, in Anime and Manga that is."

Genma tuned them out. He was receiving a transmission from…the Fox? "What the hell?" After disappearing off the face of the internet for over half a year, the mysterious Wizard Class Hacker, Fox suddenly just reappearing? This wasn't a coincidence. Genma was sure of that much. "Oi! Someone get me the Chief! I think I got something he'll want to see."

* * *

 _Highway 10, Republic of Fire_

 _11:51 P.M._

 _07/05/2016_

 _~Ana Shimada~_

* * *

"Well that was a big fat waste of time wasn't it?"

Everyone in the car ignored Tenten. Behind them, smoke from the smoldering remains of the Rising Sun base rose up into the sky. Ana reloaded her MK11 MOD 0 and stuck her upper body out of the car. There were several black SUV's full of the Rising Sun's redshirts trailing them. From what she gathered, they were far from bulletproof.

"Actually, that wasn't." Sasuke replied. "The base was fake. We should have known that much. But there's only so much you can get from 3D satellite imaging. Even with a 4K HD resolution picture. This is like the fake military base that Konoha set up during the Invasion of Kiri to fool them into thinking they were going to attack the main island. Except this time, I have no clue what they could be doing."

"You don't, that's true." Sakura commented, ducking back into the car to reload her F2000 assault rifle. "But I have an inkling of an idea."

"Well go on." Sasuke fired upon a passing SUV with a gunman sticking out. The gunman's head blew up as a bullet flew right in between his eyes. "Tell us. You must have found something in that communications center right? That was the only thing in that place that _actually_ worked right?"

"Yeah, I managed to intercept a call from Akaza Shibuya. Something about the Harbor. And the forward base. I think there was a map in there." Sakura leaned out the window. "They're gone. For now. Anyways, according to the map, the Rising Sun have another base closer to the city inside the Old Senju forest. Should we head there?"

Ana leaned back into her seat as Sasuke thought about it. "I say we go for it. Chances are this is probably one of their main hideouts. If not actually be their main base." Tenten on the other hand, wasn't afraid to tell everyone what she thought."

"Ana." Sasuke turned to her. Or rather, looked at her through his peripheral vision. "What do you think we should do?"

"Let's do it. There's a reason that the Rising Sun made that fake base. If we search that hideout, we may find out what it is."

Sasuke sighed. "Satoru."

" _I'm already on it…Alright, according to a satellite scan of the forest, there seems to be nothing. But if we scan into the ground….Bingo. Alright, there is indeed an actual base there. Entrance is located close to the old Senju Graveyard. By Mito Uzumaki's grave. The actual base itself goes 100…no 150 to 160 meters down into the ground. Thermal imaging shows a lot of heat signatures. 300 to 350 at least."_

"As I thought. Satoru, tell Deidara and Shino to finish up whatever they're doing down in Kasai and tell them to meet us just outside the parking lot to the Senju Camping Ground and tell Lee to meet up there as well. Kurama!"

" _Yeah boss?"_

"You finish deciphering that data sequence I found? Anything important?"

" _Nah, I've only managed to decode the first three lines and so far it doesn't make any sense. It goes: Heartfelt promises never end well. Sounds like something an edgy teenager would post on some Subreddit for "teens who feel like life sucks". Anyways, I should be able to decipher all of it by the time you guys finish the mission. Maybe you guys can make some sense of this."_ Kurama was typing fast, if the sound of typing was anything. " _If you want Naruto can take over the deciphering the sequence and I could hack into the system of that base."_

"No it should be fine. Now, did anything happen that we should know about? A terrorist attack?"

" _Not really…but…Kakuzu Orihara was part of a police chase down by the airport. They didn't find him. Now everyone's in a panic because of the Thanatos Virus. But so far there haven't been any reports of suspicious activities or anything wrong with the water. And Kakuzu Orihara hasn't been seen since. But that's to be expected."_ Satoru responded. Ana's grip on her rifle tightened.

"Kakuzu Orihara?" Sakura sounded nervous for the first time since they met. "Are you sure? If he is indeed here, then things might get complicated. Especially if he's on a job for the Rising Sun. That could pose a ton of problems. Problems that we don't need."

"Yeah. The dude's a monster. If he actually is working for the Rising Sun then we may be in trouble. Regardless, keep an eye out for anything suspicious, or sounds like Kakuzu could be connected. And I mean anything. You can never be too careful with someone like Kakuzu." Sasuke said.

"If only we could get some money to bribe Kakuzu to back the fuck off." Tenten muttered. "Shit. Just when I thought things were starting to look good. Then again, my instructors always told me to prepare for the worst. Guess they were right."

"Kakuzu is far from the worst problem we could have. He's up there alright, but he's not our number 1 priority." Sasuke said. "Anyways, we're heading to the base now. Should arrive there 5 minutes, 8 tops. Sasuke out."

"Well, you are right. Things could be worse." Tenten said. "That Private Army from Ame, the Akatsuki I think they're called? They could be hear. I mean, last I heard the leader has like this android as a body guard."

Sakura scoffed. "You don't actually believe that bullshit do you? We are far away from that kind of technology. And even if were true, I doubt that the thing would actually be any semblance of a threat towards anyone with an EMP."

"I agree. Right now, let's just focus on one problem at a time. Once we're done here, we can go after an entire army." Sasuke responded, speeding up to 250 Km/h. Far off in the dark horizon, Sasuke could faintly make out the bonfires of campers within the old Senju Camping grounds. "Right now, let's go and infiltrate a hidden base. A _real_ one that is."

It would take the others some time to get to the rendezvous point. Ana estimated that it would take maybe half an hour for Rock Lee to reach it and forty-five minutes for Deidara and Shino. There was very minimal traffic in the Uchiha Ward and the old Senju Park was fairly close by. Though, considering Deidara's reckless driving and track record of going 50 over the speed limit, they would arrive at around the same time. Unless of course Shino was driving.

Ana just hoped that this wouldn't be a waste of time.

As Sasuke parked his car, Ana disassembled her MK11 MOD 0 in favour of an HK416. Down in this base, it would tight corridors with little wiggle room. Bringing a Designated Marksman Rifle down there would just be stupid. A 416 on the other was one the best, if not the best assault rifle in the world currently. After attaching a silencer, Ana made sure that her ranger finder was zeroes in correctly and that her scope was the right zoom level.

Tenten stepped out of the car. Her AUG A3 slung over her back. Ana found Tenten to be…interesting. They were both sharpshooters. Though Ana was more of a traditional one, whereas Tenten was the kind you would see in an action move. Someone who could shoot someone in the head with a pistol from long range. Ana did admit that Tenten was more than just a gun expert though. She had shown an exceptional knowledge of melee weapons as well. In the end, she was just as Sasuke promised. Someone who actually knew what they were doing and didn't hold her back.

"Alright, Lee just texted me, he should be arriving soon." Sasuke stated, lifting the car's trunk up to reveal several briefcases. He opened them up. Inside were various gadgets. EMP's, smoke pellets, sticky cameras, a small drone, some goggles, and for some reason, a laser pointer. Or what appeared to be a laser pointer. The elder Uchiha held a silenced M27 IAR. He then used the PDA's projection feature to project a satellite image of the base and contacted the other three via their coms.. "We'll split up into teams of two. Sakura and I will check out the east wing. Tenten and Ana will check out the west wing, Deidara and Lee will take the north and Shino will take south. Afterwards we'll meet up by this large room here." Sasuke said, his finger hovering over a large rectangular structure.

"Is that a hangar you think?" Sakura asked. "Scans show the structure is at least 40 meters in height. Regardless, we'll leave that part of the base up to you two."

Several minutes later, Rock Lee arrived. And 20 minutes after he arrived came Shino and Deidara. "Alright!" The blonde bomber said, getting out of the car. "Let's get started."

"Indeed. Remember, report anything you can find, but don't take anything. Scan it with your PDA. We don't want to draw any attention unless I say otherwise. Understand?" Everyone nodded. Sasuke turned off the safety of his gun. "Alright then, let's move out."

The entrance to the compound was several meters away from the Senju Graveyards. It was a small entrance. Only one person could go in at a time. And it was dark and cramped. " _Alright guys, I'm managed to hack the security cameras and systems, so don't worry about triggering any alarm trying to get in there._ " Naruto's voice buzzed in. _"I've also marked all camera's, doors, security checkpoints, alarms and traps on your PDA's. "_

"You able to get into their main database?"

" _Not so far. I should be in within a couple of minutes. I'll notify you when I get in."_

"Rodger that. I'll keep an eye for an access port for you." Sasuke responded. The 7 of them had all managed to finally get in. For an underground base with very minimal attention brought to it, the Rising Sun's forward base was incredibly slick looking. Pristine white walls and ceramic floors. The entrance had 4 cameras. No one paid any attention to them. Because if Naruto said that he's managed to hack the cameras, he means it.

" _Alright guys, there are…4 guards just outside that door. Three of them are facing away from you and one is keeping an eye on the door. Do you want to me to cut the power?"_

"No. We can handle." Sasuke turned to Sakura and Tenten. "Alright, I'm going to open the door. Call out your targets." He said, as Ana pulled her goggles over her eyes and turned on the x-ray mode.

"Dibs on the guy by the fire extinguisher." Tenten said. Sakura pointed at the girl standing opposite and Shino called the one staring straight at the door. "Guess that leaves the last one to you Ana."

"Alright, safeties off." Sasuke quickly pulled open the door. Sakura took a step in and fired a headshot at her target. Ana fired a single shot from her 416. The man's brain matter splattered all over the wall. The other two couldn't even react in time as Shino fired two quick shots, one to the chest and one between the eyes. Tenten fired a quick three round burst into the body of her target. "Move, move!" Sasuke ordered. "Deidara, hide the bodies quick."

Ana and Tenten didn't bother to wait and began to move quickly. The first order of business was the hangar. That was simple enough. There weren't really that many guards. And whenever one did show up, it was rather easy to sneak past or knock them out. The hallways weren't a confusing labyrinth of never ending hallways that eventually lead right around to the same place.

"Wait, don't move." Tenten said. "Is that…Arisa? Damn. I knew I should've killed her back there." The ex-ANBU agent whispered to Ana, as she peeked around a corner.

"Do we take her out?" Ana asked, sliding over to beside a vending machine. "I have line of sight. I could probably take her out." Tenten shook her head.

"No. She's one of Akaza's captains. She probably knows some useful information. So for now, we just move along and get to the hangar."

The two of them passed by a large, floor to ceiling window. Ana realized with a start, that the window was showing the inside of the hangar. She grabbed Tenten by the ex-ANBU agent's hoodie. "Look."

They were mobilizing. Hundreds of the Rising Sun's goons piling into helicopters, and armoured vehicles, some trucks. All of them were heavily armoured and armed. Flak jackets, helmets, night vision goggles, customized M16s, M4s. It made Ana wonder, where the hell did the Rising Sun get all these weapons? All this gear?

"Ana." Tenten started. "You know what this means right? The Rising Sun mobilizing? The attack isn't Friday. It's today." Tenten reached up to her ear piece. "Naruto. Do you see this?"

" _Yeah, I do. Streaming it to everyone's PDA. Shit."_

" _Naruto."_ Sasuke's voice came over coms. It was steely and serious enough that it made Ana shiver slightly. " _Contact the All Seeing Eye. Send them this footage. We need to find out where the attack is going. Send them all the locations that we narrowed the attack down to."_

" _Rodger that sir."_

Ana swallowed. This was it. The zero hour.

* * *

 **Well, shit, it took only took like two months, but here is the next update. After like 4 drafts of this same freaking chapter it's finally finished.**

 **Please review, I would like to know your opinion on the story so far**


End file.
